


Counselor Steven

by Tinka_chasing_Life



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series), Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: I mean it's Camp Camp, Im scared, Shenanigans, Swearing, but damn it I can't be the only one thinking of this!, this is a psychology playground, this is the first crossover between these fandoms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29248179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinka_chasing_Life/pseuds/Tinka_chasing_Life
Summary: Steven takes a break from his road trip to get a part-time job. He ends up with a full-time job at a summer camp in the middle of nowhere.It's not what he expected, but he ends up staying regardless.
Comments: 46
Kudos: 76





	1. Welcome to Camp Campbell

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> Have this. Because I couldn't find any other crossover for Steven Universe and Camp Camp, forcing me to write my own.  
> Mostly spawned from the thought that I love the whole Steven in Gravity Falls thing and Camp Campbell would be another good place to get a job without a social security number.   
> Also, I had no idea what to title this, so forgive the title. I might change it.  
> That being said, this is the longest chapter I ever wrote, so the next one might be a while.
> 
> Still, I hope you enjoy!

„- been having doubts lately.“

“About?”

“About this road trip. Maybe it was too early? I’ve been driving later into the night and keep getting up later in the morning. If it slips anymore, I might end up taking my meds late.” He already had, this morning, but only by a small margin.

“Do you wish to return home?”

He sighed. “Not really. I’m still having a great time otherwise, and it’s still amazing finding all these new places, I just feel like it’s too much freedom again.” He tried to keep the ‘again’ in his head, but that did not really work that well. “Really, the main problem right now is that my schedule keeps getting delayed. I drive longer to make up for it, but end up more tired and sleep longer, it just keeps repeating.”

“Perhaps you do need some stability for a while. Have you considered taking a break? You could try getting a part-time job when the opportunity arises and stay in one place for a while. When you feel grounded again, you can easily quit and be back on the road.”

“…I suppose.”

“I believe it would help. A lot of young people get part-time jobs for financial reasons, but I’ve known quite a lot that were more than happy about the structure it gives them.” She really knew how to play him. It kind of was her job after all. Steven hummed in a non-committing fashion. 

It was kind of hard to get up in the morning by himself when he could just get another ten minutes of sleep. That rarely worked out as well as hoped and he would end up oversleeping again. Being only halfway through his road trip and already failing at it was really discouraging, but Mrs. Jambel was, of course, right once more. The only schedule he had was the one he imposed on himself. And while he would like to stick to it, it seemed like that wasn’t in the cards right now.

Another sigh. “What should I do, then? I don’t really know how to do this sort of thing.”

“Well, you don’t need to jump at the first thing you see.” Mrs. Jambel smiled “I know that may sound contradicting, but if you see a help wanted sign from a bar needing a dishwasher, it’s completely fine to pass it by if that’s not how you want to spend your time. Look for something that interests you anyways. And if you find something you would really like to do, there is no shame in asking for work, even if there they are not actively looking for help.”

He nodded. There was a familiar sound in the background of the videocall and his therapist turned to shut off the alarm.

“Seems like that’s it for now. Did you have anything else you wanted to talk about?” She asked, getting ready to take notes.

“Hmm, no.” Steven considered for a second longer. “We’ve covered the most important things. I’ll see you next week?”

“Of course, Steven. Have a good week!”

“You as well!” he smiled back before ending the call. Taking a deep breath and letting it out again, he stood up and stretched. Then he gathered up the water bottle and blanket he’d set down on the forest floor.

He did not really like to video chat with Mrs. Jambel from his car, so he tried to find quiet spots to spend the 45 minutes in privacy. On occasion, that meant a motel, but more often than not, he found himself getting to use various bits of wilderness as his background. His therapist liked to comment on it every time, which was always a great ice breaker.

As Steven folded up the blanket and got ready to move on, he reflected on today’s session. The forest scenery had sparked a conversation about how he was currently in what felt like the middle of nowhere, heading towards the next big city. Something he was pretty excited for, seeing as he was in dire need of a proper bed. Sleeping in the car had been a necessary evil now and then, but in the past couple of days, it had become a little much. And he still had perhaps one day to go before he hit the city, but he figured that maybe he could arrive earlier if he drove until midnight.

Mentioning this had, of course, set off the long-lasting conversation they had just finished.

It was good to talk about it though, seeing as he was now more than ready to let his schedule be for a bit. He’d have to call Lars and Connie, to postpone their planned meet-ups this next week, but if he got a job for a while, at least they would know where to find him.

“Not that that is going to be anytime soon.” He sighed as he turned another corner only to be facing down more trees. These woods seemed to go on forever, and he hadn’t seen many cars driving down this road, either. He did see some interesting wildlife, however.

Imagine his surprise when another turn later, the trees cleared up to reveal a town hidden away in the forest.

“Oh wow!” a smile spread across his face. If there was any way to get a bed for a night, there was no way he was passing this up. He parked – hoping it was actually a place where he was allowed to park – and exited his car. At first sight, the town seemed like something ripped straight out of a Lonesome Lasso comic. From the font on the old looking shops to an admittedly random-seeming tumbleweed. “Where did that come from?” Steven mumbled to himself as he tried to check his phone for a place to stay. Sadly, the connection that had already been spotty earlier had now completely bailed on him. Oh well. Seemed like he would be doing this on foot.

Locking his car, he started down the street. He had parked next to what appeared to be a clothing store, but it seemed like the dresses here were as old as the rest of the town looked. There was also a bank with an ATM across the road, and he took the opportunity to get some cash. Since it would be difficult to get him an own bank account without valid identification or social security number, so his dad had opened a second account, transferred some of his money there, and gave Steven pretty much free reign over the account. 

They had been tackling the whole ‘not actually a US citizen’ issue every once and again in therapy, but a solution was still not forthcoming. He did make sure to drive extremely carefully though. Otherwise, he tended to avoid thinking about it too hard outside of therapy sessions.

On that note, when he turned the corner, he found a hardware store, a bar, and the most new-looking building in the town, which was proclaiming ‘GIRLS GIRLS’ in hot pink neon signs. Another, less flashy one named the building ‘Muffintops’.

He decided to turn back the other way to look for a motel, a slight blush on his face.

It had been much earlier on his road trip, but he knew that wasn’t his sort of… establishment. It had been the third or fourth big city he had been in, and he had been… mislead. Seeing as he was 18, no one actually stopped him. When it turned out he had not walked into a regular bar, he had run straight back out. Once he’d gathered his wits, he had called Connie to apologize. It had been an embarrassing situation, but at least Connie could laugh about it. 

It turned out there was no motel in town. Really, there were only two streets and a total of eight buildings, one of which was boarded up and in utter disrepair. 

Steven sighed heavily. Seemed like another night in the car. The sun was already low in the sky, and he was sure that if he kept driving now, he would surely be in on the road until much too late at night. He supposed he could at least look around a little. The only really interesting place was probably the bar, but he wasn’t really looking to drink. Perhaps they had water or at least something to eat. 

Honestly, he had half-expected that no one actually lived in this town anymore, so he was relieved when not only were there two people working inside the bar, but also two old men having a drink at the bar. They also did have some pretty good options for dinner. It was actually a really nice atmosphere, and he did end up getting a map of the area after talking to the waitress about his current situation.

“There’s a couple of towns in the area if ye know where to look for ‘em.” She circled some locations on the map with her pen. “This one is Sleepy Peak Pizza Bros., they’re pretty much the only thing over yonder. Here ye can find a motel and some grocery stores, as well as the local law enforcement.” She continued to give him a warning about certain areas that were known for sightings of dangerous wildlife, then went to get the food he ordered. Feeling a lot better already, he happily ate his dinner before heading out again. The area the waitress called Sleepy Peak was apparently more of a network of single buildings all scattered around the endless forest surrounding them. Some of them didn’t even have roads leading up to them!

Shaking his head, he went back to his car and started driving. He would need to backtrack if he wanted to get to the city by tomorrow, but figured it couldn’t hurt. The salad at that bar was surprisingly good.

Night had fallen by now, but the drive was peaceful regardless. He passed by a large sign showing the way to some camp. According to the waitress, there were several of them by the lake near Sleepy Peak Peak. Which, aside from the redundant seeming name, was apparently also a volcano. Steven figured it must be a dormant one if there were several large collections of children spending their summer near it. 

The next cluster of buildings came later than he thought, and he was beyond relieved to finally check into a motel for the first time in days. After checking for bugs, he got settled in for the night at last.

The next morning brought a pleasant surprise. The motel had a notice board hung up, which Steven had initially checked out because it had a big warning plaster over it concerning… squirrels? Anyways, the good news was that there were a lot of newspaper clippings on it, some detailing a missing pet or a bargain at a local store. Most of it wasn’t all that interesting to him, but there was a small section of the board where a couple of ‘Help Wanted’ notices were hung up.

“Huh.” That seemed way too easy. Or not.

Most of the notices here were either not for him or he had doubts they were even serious offers in the first place. One of these notices was looking for a chicken dentist! He hadn’t even known there was such a thing! Actually, did chickens even have teeth? Or would someone looking into a chicken's mouth still be called a dentist?

Another was from an electronics store ‘seeking boy genius’ and yet another was from a hardware store. He recalled seeing both of those stores in the small town he had left the other day. Perhaps he could check in on the hardware store offer. He wasn’t good with electronics, so the other option was out as well.

There was also a notice from a summer camp looking for help and another looking for campers. He had to re-read that one, but it actually seemed like they were looking for campers. Someone must have accidentally posted that on the wrong side of the board.

Steven took out his phone to take a photo of the hardware store offer, then after some consideration, also the one from the camp looking for a co-counselor. That couldn’t be harder than babysitting Onion, right? …Though maybe, he would try for the hardware store first. It had been a while since he had time to work out, but certainly, that kind of work included some heavy lifting. That actually would be a welcome change from sitting in a car most of the day.

Before leaving, he went to the grocery store to stock up on drinks and some fruits and veggies for the road. He had a cooler in the free space in front of the passenger seat where he could easily reach for an apple or something similar, but since he hadn’t seen a town in a while, there wasn’t much in there anymore. He had taken care to get proper food twice a day, but the rest of the time he had slowly eaten away at the reserves in that cooler. Water was also running low, so he ended up buying two six-packs of large water bottles, a couple of bananas, and apples as well as some carrots and a pre-packaged sandwich. And, feeling indulgent, he also got himself some Chaaaaps. Maybe it was a little much, but yesterday he had been really worried about not finding another town to stock up. If that town hadn’t been there, he would have eaten his last apple for breakfast and driving for hours before getting a proper meal in the city. 

For now, he ate his sandwich – not the best breakfast, admittedly, but better than nothing - and took his pills with some water before he got started working on his car. Over the past few days, empty water bottles had piled up on the backseat, so he picked them all up and tossed them into a trash container by the motel. Making sure his car’s interior was all cleaned up, he got back in and headed back to the town with the hardware store. It felt distinctly strange to think that technically, he was still in the same town. It seemed like the locals considered this town and the other as parts of one. Then again, he had seen some strange places on his trip, so really it shouldn’t surprise him. 

This time, he checked the time it took him from one ‘side’ of town to the other and was shocked when it actually took him almost an hour. He must have gotten too used to driving long stretches at a time, or maybe he had just been too tired to appreciate the large amount of forest between one part of Sleepy Peak and the other. Well, others. Since there were apparently many more remote cabins or gas stations or who-knows-what that made up this community.

Once he was finally in front of the store in question, he paused. What exactly did it mean, to work in a hardware store? Steven was thinking a lot of heavy lifting, which was no big trouble for him and had the bonus of exercise he had barely gotten while on the road. It also meant interaction with customers, but if it was anything like that short time he had ‘worked’ with Sadie in the Big Donut, that should be fine as well. Then again… he looked around and was once again taken aback by that lone tumbleweed being blown through town. Business must be slow in this store. So aside from stocking, he might just be sitting around a lot. Still, he shrugged and finally entered.

But by the time he breached the topic of the advertised job, the cashier grimaced.

“Yeaah, sorry ‘bout that.” The lady shook her head. “The job's already taken.”

“Oh.” Steven frowned. Was the bulletin not up to date? He voiced this concern to the cashier.

“Oh no, it is!” He laughed. “This was just poor luck. We literally just hired the guy yesterday. I don’t think management got the memo yet to send someone to take down that ad.”

“Alright then.” Steven nodded. Perhaps he still had a shot at the other place? “Well, I guess I’ll just have to check out that other place.”

“There is another place hirin’? I mean… apart from that guy goin’ on about his rooster’s teeth?”

“Do chickens even have teeth?”

“Normally I’d say no, but that guy is _persistent_!” The cashier laughed. “And who knows, maybe it’s some weird mutation or somethin’.”

Steven chuckled. “Well, no worries, I’m not going there. I have no education in looking at people’s – or rooster’s – teeth.” Or any education at all. His smile fell a little. Still, it was enough for a small part-time job, so that’s what he was going to do. Like many other human teenagers do. “I’m checking out this summer camp.”

The cashier's smile became a little forced. Like Mr. Smiley looked when he was angry at a customer. Steven backed up a bit.

“Ah, word of advice? You seem like a nice kid, so…” he shrugged. “I suppose this is Campbell’s ad? You won’t be gettin’ the best pay there. Actually, you won’t be getting’ regular pay even. So if you are tryin’ to pay rent or anythin’, I’d suggest looking in the city.”

Well, he wasn’t really in it for the money. “Okay. Thanks, but I’m good. I’m looking for…” stability after a life of too little of it? His human side? A break from his road trip of self-discovery? “the experience, I guess.” He trailed off.

“Hah, in that case, there is plenty of that down at Lake Lilac.”

Which proved to be true. The very first experience Steven had at the address indicated was a hastily scribbled note on the entrance to the camp.

‘Campsite was taken over by squirrel army. Turn west and follow the edge of Lake Lilac for 1,5 miles (about 30 minutes) to find the new location of Camp Campbell!’

At first, Steven took this for a prank. But a quick trip into the campsite revealed that there was indeed a group of squirrels in the cabin… having dinner. There was a group of squirrels wearing accessories and eating dinner at tables. 

For a moment, he was torn between investigating versus just leaving and doing what he came for. Then he was startled by a shrieking squirrel pointing dramatically at him, which caused every other squirrel to stop what they were doing and stare at him. Raising his hands in surrender, he slowly backed away from the window he had been looking through and was glad when he wasn’t mobbed by angry cute animals. Seemed like he would be trekking through the wilderness for a bit. 

He was pretty impressed when after exactly 30 minutes of walking, he came upon a campsite looking exactly like the one he had just left. It was really uncanny, but at least it seemed like there were humans around this time. An old man had just entered the replica of the dining hall he had found back where the other campsite had been. Feeling a little better, he checked the photo he had taken of the ad again. It said to speak with ‘Gwen’. Steven wasn’t really sure where to go from here. Could he just enter the cabin to ask the old man where he could find her? He thought on this as he approached, but was caught just before he could knock.

“Hello there!” Steven startled a little and turned to face a twig of a man with dark red hair and a giant grin. “How can I help you?”

“Um.” He vaguely lifted up his phone with the ad. “I was looking for… ‘Gwen’? There was an ad for a job offer-”

“Oh, _that_!” The guy waved it off. “That must have been weeks ago! Now that Campbell is helping out, I don’t think we need-”

“DAVID!” an irritated woman's voice cut in and Steven swiveled around again to see a dark-skinned woman glare at David. Was that- Had she been _crying_? “Fuck you, David, we do need the help. And since Daniel was never paid, I saved that money for when we would finally get another offer, so don’t you _dare_ send this guy away!”

“Okay then, CBFL! I’ll just go and fill out-”

“You will keep an eye on the kids, while I fill out the paperwork.”

“Alright-y! Come along Max!” The guy – David, apparently – picked up a boy who had been trying to hide behind Gwen.

“Damn it, no! I still need to make Gwen feel less like shit!”

“Language.” David scolded.

Gwen shook her head. “ _Nothing_ would make me happier than getting another hand on deck, so go with David, Max.” She gestured at Steven to come along. “Come on.” Though it sounded more like a question than a request.

“No _oo_! David, do you want another _Daniel_?!”

“Oh, don’t be silly Max! Campbell can’t fire me now, remember!”

“That isn’t what I meant!!” 

Then the two others had left and Steven was standing in front of a woman who had definitely been crying and seemed desperate to get someone to help out. He… he couldn’t walk out now, right? 

“Are you… still interested?” came a tired and resigned question from Gwen. Steven bit his lip and made a soft ‘hnnggg’ noise.

“I…” Did he want to bail? He wanted to help- But wasn’t that the problem here? Was he allowed to help, or should he go find a job in the city? “I-… I just need to make a call.”

“Oh.” She sighed.

“Really.” He said. “I’m… gonna be right back.”

He stepped away a little but did not leave her line of sight, which at least made her look a little more hopeful. He went through his contacts. At this time, his therapist would likely not be available just yet, but he knew who he could call.

“Hello? Connie here.”

“Hey, Jam.” He smiled at her voice.

“Oh! Hey, Biscuit!” she laughed a little. “Sorry, I didn’t check the caller ID.”

“No problem. I just… I need some advice if you have a moment?”

“Sure, I have a little time. What is it?”

He quickly relayed the situation to her. She asked a few follow-up questions before seemingly figuring out what to say.

“Are you going to regret walking away from this?” she asked.

He cast a look at Gwen, who was still casting him hopeful glances while trying to appear as though she wasn’t looking over. “Hmmm, possibly?”

“And are you going to regret staying?”

“Uh, also, possibly?”

“Well, you have been talking about this with Mrs. Jambel about getting a job, right? What do people do when they are working?”

“Huh?” He didn’t quite understand that question.

“My mom works as a doctor, which means she helps people get healthy again or she helps them stay healthy. My dad helps people who want to keep their property safe from delinquents. And… well, Vidalia helps people decorate their homes with nice art! It’s the nature of work to help people in specific areas.” She paused. “That is what I think at least.”

Steven nodded. “And since my therapist already suggested getting a job for some stability, that must mean it’s okay, right?”

“I would say try it. If the job is as hard as it seems, they must be used to people quitting, so I’m sure if it’s too much for you, they won’t force you to stay.” Connie laughed. “And if they try, I’ll get them to change their minds!”

Steven laughed. “Alright then! Sounds good. I guess there is no harm in trying.”

“Keep me up to date on what happens, alright, Steven?” she asked softly.

He felt his cheeks warm a little. “I will. See you soon?”

“I will need your location so I can take Lion there, but sure. Are we keeping the date?” Their next meet-up had been scheduled for later the next week.

“Sure.”

“Love you!”

“Love you too.” He replied, with a soft smile, before Connie hung up.

When he put his phone away, he quickly became aware of Gwen’s eyes fixed on him. He nodded and came back over to her, seeing relief in every line of her body.

“Thank god, you scared the hell outta me with that!” she joked weakly.

“Sorry. Just needed to confirm something.”

“That’s okay. Let’s get you to the counselors’ cabin and get that paperwork done.”

The counselors’ cabin was a building that was a little smaller than the mass hall. On the inside, there were two beds on side of the cabin, as well as a desk with a chair. Two armchairs were set near a really old-looking TV off to the side. In the corner left of the entrance, there was a huge pile of cardboard boxes and random stuff

“You can take the chair if you want.” She offered as she dug around a cabinet full of disorganized files. Seeing as there was only that one chair, Steven decided to respectfully decline. In reply, Gwen pulled it up to the table and sat down once she found what she had been looking for. “Alright then.”

She made a few notes on the papers, then began the interrogation.

“Can’t believe this hasn’t come up yet. I’m Gwen. What’s your name?”

“Steven.”

“I need your full name for the paperwork, you know.”

“Oh! Right. It’s Steven Quartz Cutie Pie DeMayo Diamond Universe.”

Gwen blinked. “Uhm. How do you spell that?”

She ended up handing over the paperwork for him to fill in his name, then stared at it for a few moments before shaking her head and asking the next question.

“How old are you?”

“18.”

“Hm, that’s not much older than Ered… Whatever. Any prior work experience?” she asked.

“Hmm, does working in a donut shop count?” he asked.

“Eh, technically we’re looking for people who worked with kids before, but at this point, I don’t care if you came from Mars and had never seen a human child before.”

Steven’s smile froze a little and he forced a chuckle. Just a joke. “I did babysit once in a while.” And Onion was… well, Steven was still not sure. Certainly not a normal kid, though he wasn’t entirely sure if any kid he knew was normal. Peedee, perhaps.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter to me what experiences you have, seeing as I had close to none when ending up here, either.” She shrugged and wrote down a couple more things. “Now, just a few technicalities.”

Gwen handed over the paperwork, as well as a clipboard to write on.

“Just fill in your contact info, education, social security number, and whatnot.”

He blanked. “Uhhh, so… about that-”

“Please don’t tell me that’s a problem.”

“I could… make something up?” he offered tentatively. He could write down Connie’s school and the address of the beach house, as well as his bank account, but he couldn’t actually make up a Social Security number. What if it already belonged to someone? Also, he had no idea how many numbers they had to have.

“Fine, that’s cool, no need for an address, we can just use whatever, you know.”

He stayed silent.

Gwen raised a brow. “What? Did you not go to school, or what?”

He grimaced and tried for the biggest problem. “I have no social security number.”

She boggled at him. “Did you seriously go off the grid at _your_ age?!” she asked with hysteria in her tone.

“…I never had one.” This did not seem to help in the slightest. For a moment Gwen just wheezed with a hundred-yard stare before taking a deep breath.

“Alright…. Alright. Okay. That’s- not optimal, but considering Campbell…” she dug around a little more. “Right.” She sighed. “Listen. We do this off the books, alright? Don’t worry, you are not actually missing out on any insurance, because this camp is essentially broke and we don’t get that kind of stuff anyway.”

“So… I can stay?” he had the feeling that perhaps that was not the question to ask here, which intensified at the look Gwen gave him.

“You want to stay?” She asked.

“That is kind of why I’m here.” He joked weakly.

“You get 60$ a week.” She said flatly.

“Okay?” he used to get 10$ for babysitting Onion, and he had not been paid while working at the Big Donut. This job seemed more like babysitting, but it was also shared between several people, so it seemed all fair enough.

The silence stretched on for a moment longer.

“In that case, welcome aboard!” she threw her hands up incredulously, then took the paperwork from him and crumpled it into a ball before tossing it into the trashcan. Then she leveled him with a serious look. “And if it turns out you are more of a liability than a help, I won’t hesitate to toss you out,” she told him.

Steven nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll do my best,” he promised.

“Alright then.” She sighed and glanced at the corner full of boxes. “Sorry, this might take a while? Seeing as David and I are the only counselors, we kinda used the third bed as a shelf. Which means we’ll have to clean it up before you can move in.” She lifted one of the boxes, which was full of broken tools and random knick-knacks. That was all he could see before Gwen suddenly paused and closed the box again before she turned to Steven. “By the way, do you have a car?”

Steven nodded and chuckled. “Yeah. Would be kind of hard going on a road trip through all the states without one.”

“Great! Wait, so you don’t actually have a lot of stuff to move in here, right?” She asked. “I mean, we’re still gonna clean it up, but how about you go get your stuff here first?”

Steven thought back to the time he worked at the Big Donut. “When do I start working, by the way? Do I need to do some sort of training first or anything like that? I’ve been a babysitter before, but I don’t know how much of that is useful here.”

Gwen waved him off as she carefully pulled down the box she had just opened and slid it over to the bed on the left side of the cabin. “Uff. Nah, don’t worry. I think I still got a handbook David made lying around somewhere, I can give you that and some of our notes on the kids. Just… don’t actually follow the handbook?” she dug around the desk for a while. “There are a couple of things in there that are actually important, like what you can and cannot talk about when you’re around kids, but from what I’ve been observing, this particular group of kids couldn’t care less.”

“So, that’s the plan? Clean up, get settled in and read that handbook?”

“Pretty much, yeah. I’d say you can use today to watch and learn, since I should keep tabs on the kids so they don’t kill David. A- _ha_ , there it is!” She pulled out a folder from a drawer. She flipped a couple of pages, then tossed it to Steven. “There you go. Again, only the first ten pages or so are actually relevant. I’ll get you our notes later, soo….” She looked around with a sigh. “Okay. You.” She pointed at him. “Are going to get your stuff. Meanwhile, I’ll get my things sorted out and tell David to do the same. How long will it take you to get your stuff?”

Steven shrugged. “I walked here from that other campsite, the car is still around there. So a little more than half an hour? But don’t worry, I can-… we can move things together.”

“That would be great actually. I should get most of this sorted by then. Now Shoo.” She waved her hand at him. “Go get your car, we’ll handle the rest when you get back.”

He held up the folder still in his hands awkwardly, “Uhhh…?”

“Just leave it,” Gwen gestured to the table, already picking up a box labeled ‘magazines’.

Steven had saved the location of the camp on his phone. The internet connection out here was horribly slow on its own, but he had gotten a data plan for it a while ago when he realized he would have to have a reliable way to talk to everyone while on the road. The walk back to his car was a good opportunity to think about what he had just signed up for.

Over the past few years he’d obviously come to realize that what he had learned about the world from TV was often a far cry from reality. Still, the only experience – as much as he could call it that – that he had with summer camps was the Camp Pining Hearts series. But judging from that boy he’d seen earlier, this summer camp was not for teens, but for younger kids. For a short while, he entertained the thought of how it might have been like to go to a summer camp. He didn’t even know if there were any of those near Beach City. 

Was the frontier adventure he had with his dad and Ruby been like camping? They never put up a tent, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t actually required for camping? People camped in RV’s a lot too, didn’t they? He sighed. That wasn’t a far cry from a van, was it? Maybe he had actually been camping all his life! Just… in a town. Still, he had some survival knowledge from Connie. Steven wasn’t really sure if that was important or not, but he had it.

But the main goal here was to get a better daily routine. Did he take his meds today? He checked his phone, where he kept a checklist. The box was unchecked, even though he had remembered that he did take them this morning. Had he forgotten to check the box, or was his memory playing tricks on him? He groaned and put down a question mark as a note for today, feeling shame for the other question marks that appeared increasingly often. He wasn’t at a concerning number yet, seeing as for most of them he was sure he’d taken them and just forgot to log it, like today. Still, there were also a couple of ‘late’ markers in there and he didn’t want it to get any worse.

So, no more putting his alarms on snooze in the morning. He would still have to ask when he would have to get up, but since he would have to take his meds at 7 in the morning, he was sure it would be fine.

His car was covered in acorns. It didn’t seem like anything was broken, so he took the brush he kept along with a dustpan and cleaned it off. By the time he was done, it was almost 10 am. Actually, Steven was pretty content when he turned on the engine and set up his phone to lead him back to the actual campsite. He’d just gotten a part-time job within just a few hours! Maybe he would call Sadie later and ask how long it usually takes. That thought also reminded him that he would have to reschedule a few meet-ups, so before he started to drive back, he set a reminder for himself to do so this evening.

The drive back took considerably less time, even though the entrance to the camp was a little harder to find. Still, he managed to get back within fifteen minutes and parked his car next to the other one, next to the cabin he was going to live in for... For how long, actually? Steven still had to ask how long and at which times he would be working.

“I’m back!” he greeted as he entered the cabin. Gwen turned to him with an empty cardboard box in her hand.

“Well, good timing.” She said as she set the box down next to a couple more. “This is the last of my stuff, I think. I’m just going to go and tell David to get his things as well. Though, I don’t think there is much of his in there.”

“Great,” Steven nodded. “By the way, I was wondering what the working hours were? Just so I know for when to set my alarms and such.”

“It’s all in that folder, but we work all the time. If a camper comes to you in the middle of the night crying, you gotta go and get the snake out of the toilet or help them get over their homesickness, that sort of stuff. Buuuut- We usually get up around 6 am to get things ready. Breakfast is at 7:30, lunch at one in the afternoon, dinner at eight and bedtime is technically non-existent, but it’s supposed to be quiet after nine. Though David usually does the night rounds, so you don’t really need to worry about that just yet.” She shrugged and picked up the box again with some effort. “I’m just gonna get this put away, then we can go get David, okay?”

While she went outside to put away the empty boxes, Steven glanced at the bed. There were only two boxes and a couple of blankets left. He noticed the handbook on the table and picked it up, deciding to take a quick look inside. Steven let the pages run over his finger like a flipbook. Gwen had said only the first few pages were important, and he could see why she might think that. Apparently, the rest of the folder was pages and pages of sheet music.

“Alright!”

He was pulled out of his thoughts when Gwen opened the door to the cabin. “Now… I get to switch with David,” she paused and sighed. “Let’s just go.”

They walked back to the mess hall and Gwen led them around to the other side. A clearing greeted them, full of various constructions and with a bunch of kids spread out on it. Steven did a quick headcount – ten kids in total, each with an empty cardboard box and most visibly distressed. Gwen was quickly approaching the red-haired guy Steven had met earlier – David presumably – who was currently talking to a couple of the kids. As they approached, he beamed at them and went to meet them halfway.

“Well, good to see you back again!” he greeted Steven.

“I told you, he just went to get his car here,” Gwen replied. “Also, I already cleaned my junk off the spare bed, so now it’s your turn. The box of logs sure isn’t mine. I’ll mind the kids in the meantime.”

David's grin faltered a little. “Um, Gwen are you sur-”

She glared at him and pointed towards the counselor's cabin. “Move it.”

“Alright-y!”

Steven watched David retreat. “I don’t think he likes me.” He wagered. The counselor was clearly worried about leaving Gwen alone.

“David likes everyone,” Gwen replied. “It’s not you, we just had a…” she sighed heavily. “Situation, this morning. I’ll be just great, as long as-”

“Heyyyy, Gwen!”

“Fucking. Shit.” She groaned. Steven was taken aback by the language she was using, considering the age of the kids surrounding them. One of which had managed to sneak up on them, the same boy he saw with her earlier that day. “What?”

“You’re just who I was looking for.” the kid said with an honestly kind of forced-looking smile. “I got something that will blow your mind!”

“Max, not now, I can’t leave the new guy alone.”

“What, he seriously stayed?” the boy scoffed, dropping the act and squinting a glare up at Steven.

“Uh, hi?” Steven waved with a small smile. “I’m Steven.” The kid just glared even more.

“Don’t you dare,” Gwen frowned. Steven darted a look from her to the boy in the hoodie, who was now wearing a little smirk.

“What _ever_ do you mean, Gwen?”

“I mean it. Stop.” She pointed at him as he slowly backed away towards the mess hall with his hands in his pockets.

“I’m not doing anything.” He shrugged. “In fact, I’m going to go aaalllll the way over there to not do anything there. Where you cannot see me.” He turned and started running towards the mess hall.

“God fucking damn it.” Gwen started to run after him, then stopped after two steps. “I need to keep an eye on him, please can you keep yours on the rest of the kids?” Before he could answer, she swore again and took off after the kids that had now disappeared into the mess hall.

Steven stood as the lone adult on a clearing with nine kids and wondered what ‘keeping an eye’ on them meant? Was he just supposed to look out that nothing happened? Should he introduce himself?

“Who are you?” 

Steven whirled around to the nearest group of kids. All four were sitting or lying on the ground and staring up at him. There was one with one of those things around his neck that he’d seen in pictures of old-timey people. He’d always wondered if those hurt.

“I’m Steven.”

“Are you ein new camper?” the smallest one asked. Steven shook his head.

“No, no. I technically start tomorrow, I think. As a counselor, I mean.” He felt awkward standing, so he sat down with his legs crossed. 

“Huh, I didn’t know they were still looking for another counselor.” The boy with the tophat mused. 

“Yeah, I heard the ad I saw was apparently older?” Steven shrugged. “What are your names?”

“I’m Harrison.”

“Mein name is Dolph!”

“Preston Goodplay.”

“I am the Fair Lady Nerris the Cute.”

“It’s nice to meet you. What are you doing?”

“Ugh.” Harrison rolled his eyes. “We’re supposed to be making these dumb time capsules. Like anyone knows what to put in them now.” He grumbled.

“How old are you?” Nerris asked. “I thought you would be a camper for sure!”

“I’m 18.”

“Have you ever made a time capsule?”

He shook his head. “No, what is it?”

“Well,” Preston spoke up. “it seems like we are supposed to capture our current SELF in a mere collection of TRINKETS and our goals and dream in a SIMPLE LETTER!”

“But what if I don’t become ein famous artist?!” Dolph exclaimed. “Then this box will just end up causing me shame!”

“I don’t even know what we are supposed to put into the dumb letter,” Harrison added sullenly.

Steven felt like he had an idea about what a time capsule was supposed to be but still had to ask. “So you make the box, then keep it until you are ready to open it?”

“We are going to bury them,” Nerris explained.

Steven raised a brow. “What, here?”

The kids looked up from their boxes.

“So when would you dig them up again? If they are buried at your home, at least you would be able to get them easily. But if they are buried here, how would you even get to them.”

“You’re RIGHT! We may not SEE these monstrosities again in OUR LIVES!”

“But now I will be thinking about it!” Dolph complained. “And it’s going to mess with mein art.”

“That’s not so bad.” Steven shrugged. “At least you’ll get it out of your system.”

“I don’t know what I would do if I can’t become ein artist.” Dolph was staring into his box again and the other kids appeared similarly lost in thought.

“Yeah,” Nerris nodded. “If I can’t be a great dungeon mistress, who am I going to be?”

“Even if we do not participate in the creation of THESE-” Preston shook his box. “I will never forget my TRUE PASSION! And when I end up a mere shell of a man, after failing to get the recognition my work DESERVES, then the memory of this day shall HAUNT ME! FOREVER.” He dramatically buried his face in the box.

Steven had to chuckle a little.

“DO NOT LAUGH AT MY PLIGHT!”

“No, no, I wasn’t-” had he been this dramatic at that age?

Steven was thinking. It was a strange thing to think about, but would his younger self be disappointed in him? He was certain when he was the age these kids were no one could ever really disappoint him. And he was happy with who he was right now, even if he may have preferred to get here with less… baggage than he had. He wondered what he might have put into a time capsule but then shook himself out of it.

“Really, it’s not that bad not becoming what you wanted to be as a child.” He tried.

“Did you finish your life-long quest?” Nerris asked. Steven blinked. Then he nodded.

“Well, then that’s easy for you to say.” Harrison shot back from where he was now lying on his back on the ground. This time Steven shook his head.

“Actually, yes, I did.” He elaborated. “And it sucked.”

“Huh?” the kids made.

“I finished what I wanted to do and it was very hard.” He tried to explain as carefully as possible. “And it was actually so difficult, that after I was done, I didn’t want to do anything like it again.”

“I knew it, we are going to fail!” Dolph shrieked.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Steven tried to reason. “I… I really wanted to be something specific as well. Like you want to be an artist and-…” he waved a hand at the other kids, asking them to fill the gap. He needed some time to think about how to phrase this.

“I will become an illusionist.” Harrison waved his hands in the air above him, then clapped and was doused in confetti. His arms slumped back to the ground as he tried to blow a rogue piece of confetti away from his mouth. “pft-ff… Tada.”

“While I will become a true sorceress of Vinyamar!”

“And I shall dazzle thousands on Broadway! Ideally.”

All four kids sighed.

“Well,” Steven replied, hesitantly, but in the only way he felt was still human enough. “I wanted to be like my mom. But it was actually… better, I guess, to just be myself.” He chuckled. “I wanted to go to space! But that wasn’t really all that great an idea.”

“Did you say space?” gasped a new voice behind him. He turned and saw a boy wearing a fishbowl and dressed like an astronaut. “Oh, also, do you have a clock?” the boy showed him his box, which was full of various timepieces.

“Uh. Yes and No. In that order.” Steven replied.

“Can you tell me something about space?!” He asked with big eyes.

It’s terrifying, it’s beautiful, it’s lonely and cold and you never know if you are safe, spinning in a bubble all alone makes you wonder which way is up and which one is down, everything on foreign planets wants you dead, _hell_ , everything _on earth wants you dead_ -

He cleared his throat. “It’s… big?”

The kid stopped bouncing in place and gave him a …look? Was that pity? “Oh, I know.” Then he turned and left.

“Never mind Space Kid,” Harrison said. “He does that.”

“What’s his name?” Steven asked. He looked after the other boy and realized he had not been watching the other kids. A quick look around told him they were all still where they had been before.

“Space Kid,” Nerris repeated.

Steven turned back to her and put his hands together in front of his face. “Really.”

“Got any other advice for these?” Harrison asked with a kind of hopeful look on his face.

Feeling kind of put on the spot, Steven asked for them to give him a moment.

They seemed worried that they might hit a low point in their lives and end up disappointed in themselves. Steven remembered that when he was younger, he did feel like that on occasion, usually about becoming a Crystal Gem. What got him out of a funk back then were distractions, but he had also avoided thinking about these kinds of things for too long. Questions like ‘What if I never get to control my powers’, ‘Who am I’ or ‘I messed up again’ had used to disappear as quickly as they appeared and he rarely dwelled on them. He knew he used to be happy as a child - if a little lonely. So what if he had made a time capsule? What would have gone into it? Probably toys and games, perhaps a favorite shirt or some memento. The important part was surely the letter. Because no matter what items were put into a time capsule-

“-if it’s something that makes you happy now, it’s sure to be a good thing even in the future.”

“So should I put ein art piece of mine inside?” Dolph asked, making him realize he had spoken out loud.

“Well, I say go for it.” Steven nodded. “The letter is likely what you are going to have difficulties with. Because whatever it is that makes you happy now, if you put something symbolic of that in the box, it’s bound to get you to smile when you find it later.”

“Even if the letter just reminds us that we are failures?” Harrison shot back.

“Well, you see the things before you read the letter,” Steven argued back. “So you get to remember what you were like now. And I’m sure you are happy being… artists and magicians and entertainers?”

“Sorceress.” “Illusionist.” Nerris and Harrison corrected.

“Yeah. See? You’re proud of that now. So even if your opinion changes, you’ll remember that it was fun.”

“You say that as though our dreams and PASSIONS are so easily discarded. I will not REST until I have made a name for myself!”

“That wasn’t quite what I meant.” Still, now he wondered. When he was at his lowest point, he had all sorts of bad opinions of himself, so if he had made something like a time capsule and found it then, it would really not have mattered what he wrote or how he meant it as a kid, would it? He would just have seen it as a reminder of what had been lost. 

Then again, if he had a time capsule now, he would take it a lot better. It all depended on who he was and what he did to become himself, not what he put in this imaginary box. 

“Hello, campers, guess who’s back!” David’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “Seems like everything is in order here.”

Steven stood and nodded nervously. “Y-yeah, I tried?”

“I am really sorry for leaving you alone for so long, I had no idea Gwen just left her post. Again.”

“Um, yeah, she went after that boy from earlier, uh-”

“Max?” David sighed. “I know, they are at the counselor's cabin. Gwen wanted to talk to you, by the way.”

“Alright then, what about?”

“I believe it was about the-”

“-ing career paths at _THIS AGE?!_ ” was suddenly shrieked across the clearing. David was off to investigate immediately.

“Oh dear, I’m sorry!” he hastily apologized before sprinting over to where …Space Kid (?) was standing with two other kids.

“Okay,” Steven mumbled. “Guess I’ll see you later.” He waved to the four other kids.

As he munched on his last slice of pizza, Steven reached for some napkins to get his hands clean so he would be good to read through the files Gwen had given him.

When he had returned to the cabin, Gwen had been sitting at her desk sorting some papers, while Max sat on the floor reading a manuscript of some sort. Gwen had quickly and quietly told him to read through her – and, reluctantly, David’s – notes on the campers, as well as the manuscript. Also, she advised him not to do so in the cabin, with a meaningful look at Max, who had stopped reading and was fixing him with a glare.

She also mentioned that he should get a pizza as long as he was still not required to stay on the campgrounds 24/7.

Otherwise, he was free to spend the rest of the day however he liked, though she had asked him to be back by 9 pm so she could get both David and Quartermaster together and introduce everyone. Tomorrow would be his first actual working day.

So for now, he had driven the 30-minute drive to the nearest pizza place, had eaten his pizza, and was ready to tackle the papers he’d been given once he got back to his car. Steven paid for his food and left the little diner. It was now nearly 1 pm. 

Getting settled in on the backseat of the Dondai and reached for the notes he left there. On the top of the stack were copies of enrollment forms, which had the child's name, age and the activity they were signed up for. There was also room for an emergency contact and notes, which or the paper on the top was a list of allergies. Seemed like a kid named Neil was allergic to sauerkraut.

He went through the papers and tried to commit them to memory. Neil was signed up for Science Camp, Ered for Extreme Sports Camp. He found that with fifteen, she was the oldest of the kids at the camp. The kids he met earlier were signed up for Art Camp, Theatre Camp and Magic Camp respectively. Someone named Nikki was there for Adventure Camp and another Neil for Space Camp. Was that the kid the other four had called Space Kid earlier? Steven paused when he flipped the page over. The last page was barely filled out, only a hastily scribbled first name ‘Max’ and age on the paper and a phone number that was written in different handwriting the only thing in the contact information. 

As Steven began to read the notes of the counselors, he recognized it as David’s handwriting. His notes on the kids were pretty straightforward, though Steven did wonder at some point what may have escaped the counselor's notice. Maybe he just got to know them at a bad time, but Harrison had not really seemed like ‘an upbeat camper’ to him. At least, he thought that the notes might be on Harrison, seeing as both he and Nerris were nicknamed as Magic Kid in most of the notes. At least now Steven knew where Space Kid’s nickname must have come from.

What he found in Gwen’s notes highly differed from what David had written down. According to her, the kids were a pain. Her notes warned a great deal of Neil – the Science one, apparently – Nikki and Max, who had a tendency to cause trouble just for the sake of chaos, run away from camp or try and burn the camp down. Those were the harshest of her notes, but she wasn’t that happy with Space Neil either and her notes on Nurf made him look like a criminal that just got out of jail. In David’s notes, the boy had been described as having a great self-awareness and a behavior that was a great improvement from how it was when he first got to camp.

All in all, the counselor's notes were contradicting at best and concerning at worst. Taking a break before reading the manual, Steven decided to call Connie and let her know how it went. He might as well take some time to call Lars as well to take a raincheck on the next space hangout. Possible the next few of them, actually. And he felt like he should at least let his therapist know he found something, too.

After leaving a quick message for Mrs. Jambel, he video-called Connie. The reception here was a lot better than at the camp, after all.

“Hey Connie!”

“Hi, how did it go?” she greeted with a smile.

“Pretty good, I think. I got the job!” he returned Connie’s smile.

“That’s great! How is it?”

“Well, I start properly tomorrow. I did end up watching the kids there for a short while. They were kind of struggling with this activity they were doing. Have you ever made a time capsule?”

Connie hummed thoughtfully. “I think I might have at some point? Maybe in school? I don’t really remember.”

“Those kids were pretty worried about the whole thing. They kept saying they would end up disappointing themselves.”

Connie made a slight face. “That sounds a little rough. What kind of camp is it?”

“Huh?”

“I mean what do they do? Is it more of a sports camp or a creative camp? Or just a backpacking camp?”

“Um, I actually don’t know? I got the kids enrolment forms to look over, and they are all signed up for different activities.”

“Really?” Connie raised a brow. “That sounds interesting. What activities do they do?”

Seven relayed the list he had put together from the enrolment forms.

“That’s a lot of different things. But I wonder why they would have someone from a boot camp in the same place as science and theatre. That’s usually the kind of thing bullies go for.”

“What is boot camp?”

“Oh, the uh, the behavioural correction camp. It’s usually called boot camp. And…” Connie bit her lip and hesitated.

“What?” he urged her on.

“Boot camps are militant and downright physically abusive.” She mumbled. “They operate under the assumption that delinquency has to be beaten out of the kids that go there.”

Steven frowned. “That… I don’t know, that doesn’t sound right. Should I keep an eye out for him?”

Connie had a far-off look of thinking hard about something. After a while, she groaned. “Ugh, I guess? This could go either way. Maybe they aren’t actually running a boot camp parallel to magic and art and theatre and what-not,” she sighed. “I don’t know. Just watch out for yourself first, okay? If you get anything new on that situation, just call me and I’ll do my best to help out.”

Steven nodded slowly. After a long pause he asked her about her day, which started a more pleasant course of conversation. Seeing as it was nearing the end of the semester, she was actually swamped with work for her classes. Admittedly, he could not hope to keep up with her in academicals matters anymore. He still appreciated that Connie took her time and explained things to him. She once said it helped her too, to say the things she learned out loud. Explaining it to someone else in her own words made it easier to remember for later.

“So, do you think I could pop by on Sunday?”

Steven shrugged. “Don’t know yet, I think I work there all day? I can ask for a break I guess.”

Connie smiled. “I’m sure you’ll get one. Just text me if I can’t come over. …Actually, text me whether I can come over too.”

Steven laughed. “Don’t worry, I was planning to.”

Connie was looking at something off to the side and sighed. “I’d love to talk longer, but it’s almost been an hour now-”

“It has?!” Steven sat upright in shock and checked the clock. “Oh wow. I still need to finish some reading and drive back.” And he needed to call Lars about their space-hangout.

“Seems like we’re both busy for now.” Connie smiled and then blew him a kiss.

With a soft smile and butterflies in his stomach, Steven pressed a closed fist to his chest. “I love you.”

“Love you too. See you soon!”

“Bye!”

A short moment later, Steven had dialled Lars’ phone number and was waiting for the ‘beep’ to sound so he could leave a message. From home, he could have called Lars’ shop directly, but since he had made sure to leave everything ‘gem’ at home, they had to make due with voicemails and text messages that only arrived days later. Likely, Lars would only hear this message once he arrived on earth for their meet-up.

“Hey Lars! I’m really sorry about this, but I need to take a raincheck on our hangout. I am kind of… taking a break from the road trip, and I got a part-time job. And it’s kind of an all-day kind of thing, so I don’t know yet if or when I’m allowed to get away for a while. I’ll call you when I get more information, okay? I hope to see you soon!”

The drive back was uneventful, but it was now approaching evening. The sun might not have been setting yet, but most of the day was over. Steven ended up sitting down in the mess hall to read the big folder. He was a little perturbed by the old man grumbling to himself in the back room, but managed to mostly tune it out after a while.

As Gwen had said, the first ten pages were actually really helpful. And, at times, frighteningly familiar. There was a lot of problem solving involved in being a camp counsellor. He read through some examples of issues a counsellor might have with the kids, from homesickness to acting out. When he turned the last page of that section of the folder, there was still a lot more left. Seeing as the next page was sheet music, he started flipping through the pages to find more to read.

The entire rest of the folder was songs.

Steven flipped the pages back to the first one. After a moment of reading over the notes, he hummed a couple of the tunes. He checked the time once more. It was a little after 3 pm. He left the folder on the table and quickly walked over to where he had parked his car. After some rummaging around, he got out his guitar. While he had wanted to travel lightly, making music again had been too much fun to not take along an instrument. Within no time, he had returned to the mess hall and started playing a couple of the songs in the folder.

He must have lost track of time, because at some point he flipped the last page of the folder. Baffled, Steven blinked down at the back cover of the folder. Had he really just spent – he checked his phone – nearly three hours making music? Stars, he had to look for Gwen. Probably.

He closed the folder and went back to the counselor’s cabin. However, it seemed like noone was inside. He left his guitar and he folder on the bed that was going to be his, then left the cabin again to look for the others. It was a lot more quiet now, and for a moment he felt like everyone else had just vanished. Then he heard some noise from somewhere and went to find the source of it.

A path led away from the cabin and mess hall towards the lake. It seemed like raised voices were coming from there and Steven quickened his steps. After only a short walk, he could clearly identify Gwen's voice and he was able to see flames peeking flickering. Thinking of a forest fire, he started running off the path, only to come up behind a bush to find a couple of torches positioned around a large hole in the ground. Pretty much everyone he had met or seen today was gathered around it.

And also, the kids were screaming too now.

“The hell it isn’t! All I had to do was make one person feel better, and I couldn’t even manage that!”

“How are we supposed to make sure that the future we want, is the future we want?!”

“What if I’m too extreme in the future?”

“What’s got two thumbs and a box full of treasury bonds?”

The man that had just jumped out of the bushes was someone new. Steven was glad something stopped these kids from spiraling any further but damn… These kids did not seem to be doing all that well.

“Come on! I’m set for life!” the new guy broke the silence his appearance had caused. “Again!”

“Oh, Mr. Campbell, you have to help,” David near begged. “Tell them they’re all worrying over nothing! No one’s going to end up a failure in life.”

Steven suppressed a laugh, but the new guy – Campbell? Wasn’t that the name of the camp? – did laugh outright at that statement.

“Kids, of course, you’re all going to fail!”

Panicked screaming was the answer. Alright, he could have phrased that better.

“For Christ’s sake, will you stop screeching?!” Mr. Campbell sighed. “Failure is unavoidable, like going to a baseball game and then remembering baseball is terrible. The fact of the matter is, most of you likely won’t end up where you want to be in the future.”

“I fucking knew it!” yelled one of the kids.

“Will you stop?” Mr. Campbell shouted back. “Here’s the thing. You’ve got to take your failures and make something out of them! Take Camp Campbell for instance. A lot of poor decisions went into making this place what it is today. Sure, somewhere along the line it maybe strayed from its path. Not living up to the camp it wanted to be. At some point, the camp realized that the camp would never reach the end of its path until it was ready or until it gave up! So, if the camp wanted to keep embezzling money and dealing with foreign powers, so be it!”

What the stars was this camp? Steven started to severely regret not backing out earlier. Was this why Gwen had been like that?

“But, at some point, it didn’t anymore. I never saw this coming, but I’m starting to think this camp is the best it’s ever been.”

Okay then, he was pretty sure now that the whole ‘the camp’ thing was a metaphor. So if he was hearing this right, there used to be shady dealings, but there weren’t anymore?

“Woah, I had no idea this camp had so many complex emotions.” A deep voice among the children commented.

“So maybe there’s no need to rush anything. Sorry Gwen.” Steven heard Max say.

“Yeah, well, I guess dusting off some of those writing samples could make for some good practice,” Gwen replied.

Then a girl amongst the group spoke up. “Maybe the time capsules aren’t scary commitments to the future, but are actually just proof of how we’ve grown since childhood.”

“Or maybe they’re a fucking waste of energy.” The boy next to her cut in. “All in favor of striking this camp activity from the roster forever?”

Within a few seconds, every camper had raised their hand, and the kid who had made the suggestion had grabbed a torch and thrown it into the hole along with his box, which the other kids followed up by tossing their boxes into the growing fire as well.

Steven hadn’t been this confused so many times in one day for a long time. Not only was it such an offhand way to treat a realization like that, no kid that age should be using that sort of language! Did kids really start swearing this early?

“-my god! What have I done!!?” Mr. Campbell's panicked scream pulled his attention back to him just in time to see him trying to lunge into the fire. David had reacted first and was holding him mostly in place. Steven came out of the bushes, but Gwen and even the two oldest campers had also come to hold him off. Then, next to Steven, Preston fainted. 

It was hectic. Steven took a deep breath and decided to sit down next to Preston. It seemed like Mr. Campbell was – sort of – calming down at least. As Gwen and the two oldest Campers backed away, David led the man back towards the mess hall.

“Alright everyone, show’s over.” Gwen sighed. “Everyone go get dinner.” While the campers began to move away, she took a shovel and looked down at the dying fire. Then Steven moved to stand up and the startled. “Jesus! How long have you been here?”

Steven shrugged. “I heard yelling, so I came to check if something was wrong.” He picked up Preston. “Uh, he fainted.”

Gwen pinched her nose. “Yeah, he does that sometimes. Just…” she threw a shovel of dirt on the last of the flames. “Let’s get him to his tent.”

She led the way back to the mess hall and then down another path Steven had not yet seen. A couple of tents were set up around a clearing and there was a spot for a campfire roughly in the middle. 

“Over here.” Gwen gestured him over to one of the tents and pulled back the flap. “He’s the bed in the back.”

“When does he usually wake up?” Steven asked as he put down the boy on the cot.

“Eh, give him ten minutes and he’ll be having dinner with us.”

“Um, alright then?” Steven hesitated, but then followed Gwen back to the mess hall.

Maybe he should have bailed after all. He grimaced at the thought, but also begrudgingly accepted that he might have to bite into the figurative lemon and tell Gwen he might not be a good fit for the job after all. Steven was not going to let himself get pulled into something bad for his mental health, especially not around children. 

They entered the mess hall, where everyone was chattering and eating their dinner. Steven followed Gwen’s lead and got a bowl of what looked like some kind of potato and veggie stew.

“Now, excuse me.” Mr. Campbell suddenly stood in front of him. “This is not a soup kitchen. Who are you?”

“I hired him, he’s a counselor.” Gwen waved the other man off.

“Hah! With what money?” he leaned in to whisper. “Seriously, what money are you using for this.”

“The camps money.” Gwen shot him a look and something in her tone told Steven there was an unspoken reminder somewhere in there.

“Ah. Well, I suppose you are right, Gretchen.” Mr. Campbell’s voice was louder now and Steven noticed that some of the kids were now looking over to them. “So what’s your name, young man?”

“It’s Steven.”

“Welcome to Camp Campbell!”

“Is he seriously staying?” a boy asked. He was sitting next to Max and Steven recognized him as the one who had suggested burning the time capsules.

“Yes he is!” David replied from where he was sitting. “Everyone say hi to our new co-co-counselor!”

“As if,” Max commented. “I’m sure he’ll be running off in the middle of the night.”

“I’ll bet he’ll last at least a day.” Harrison countered. All of the sudden, every camper was betting on how long Steven would stay. 

“Come on.” Gwen pulled him over to where David was eating his dinner. Steven saw from the corner of his eye that Max was pocketing money from the other campers betting. It was surreal, in a way. And concerning, seeing as from what he could make out, not one camper had bet on longer than a week. 

“Should I be worried?” Steven asked Gwen.

“Of course not!” David replied for her.

“Maybe,” She shrugged. “Max might try something tonight, soo…” she looked at David in question.

“I can do some rounds tonight, don’t worry. I’m sure he wouldn’t try messing with the counselors’ cabin.”

Gwen’s look said ‘fat chance’, but she kept quiet and ate her stew.

It wasn’t the best, to be honest, but Steven was glad it was vegetarian at least. David finished first and started herding the kids off to bed, while Gwen and Steven finished up their dinner.

“Okay,” Gwen said seriously when she put her spoon into the empty bowl. “I feel bad not being honest, but I gotta lay it down hard, kid.”

Steven furrowed his brow, suddenly worried.

“This camp was designed to be a scam. The kids are horrible and rob us of our nerves daily. I had about as much experience as you have when I started here and I don’t want you to get steamrolled on your first day. Did you read the manual and our notes?”

Steven nodded. “I have a question. What is with Nurf’s activity? Why is he here?”

Gwen grimaced. “Yeah, he was sent here for boot camp. But-” she quickly said. “like I said, this camp is a scam. No one gets what they actually want, we just do our best to make it seem like it was what they signed up for. In Nurf’s case…” she grimaced. “We tried a bunch of psychology stuff and I guess some of it stuck?” she shrugged and averted his eyes. “I mean,” she laughed. “Look at David, do you seriously think he’d be okay with a camper getting hurt even on accident?”

Steven shrugged. “I don’t know, I haven’t really talked to him much today.”

“Sorry about that.”

“I can just talk to him tomorrow. I just needed to ask about the whole ‘behavioral correction camp’ thing. My girlfriend pointed it out to me and I was a little worried. And… thank you for at least being honest?” he smiled weakly. “I was starting to wonder what I got myself into.”

“I just want to say a couple of things. Max is Satan. Seriously, that kid is way too manipulative for his age, so just be aware of that. Nikki and Neil follow him almost everywhere and it’s very likely you’ll soon see the three of them trying to cause mayhem. David usually manages to keep them from getting seriously hurt, but someone needs to watch the rest of the campers.”

“So they basically need one counselor all by themselves?”

“Pretty much. Then of the kids that are left, Nerris or Space Kid often happen to wander off out of sheer stupidity or try to eat rocks or something.”

Steven laughed.

“I’m serious, Space Kid did try to eat rocks. Several times,” she stressed.

“Oh.”

“The rest of them usually stay in place, but if Ered is trying to do something cool, she might wander off as well. However, she is actually old enough to handle herself most of the time. Nurf is doing admittedly not bullying as much as he used to anymore, so that is one thing less to worry about with the rest of them. Which only leaves Harrison to look out for.”

“What about him? He seemed pretty normal when I talked to him.”

“I don’t know how he does it, but the boy is obsessed with illusions and magic tricks. On occasion, something just happens that he caused. And that could be anything.”

Steven hummed thoughtfully. “Soo, essentially every camper theoretically needs their own counselor.”

Gwen forced a weak laugh. “Heh, yeah. I think we’d need around five for this group of kids.”

“Aren’t there two other adults here? Mr. Campbell and that old guy?”

“You don’t want either of them around the kids.” Gwen sighed. “Quartermaster keeps the grounds in order and makes sure we have food but try to keep interaction with him to a minimum,” she shuddered. “And Campbell is here for his community service. And he still frequently manages to turn activities into some sort of child labor.”

Steven frowned. He remembered going over the topic of child labor and child soldiers in therapy. His opinion of Campbell had just taken a big dive.

“So it’s really just you two.” He mumbled.

“I really hope having a third person here is going to make things a little easier.”

“What if I don’t do a good job?” Steven asked.

Gwen shrugged. “You’ll be fired. But I’m sure you’ll do fine and I promise you won’t get fired over a little chaos happening,” She joked. “That reminds me, there are a couple formalities still. We get five vacation days, one for each week. Just talk with us if before taking it, so we can arrange who gets to leave this dump when, okay?”

Something here didn’t quite fit, but it left his mind as quickly as he noticed it.

“That’s great! My girlfriend and I had a meeting planned, so I wanted to ask about that anyway. It’s good to know we can still meet up.”

“Sure, just make sure you go somewhere else for your date,” Gwen smirked.

“Of course.” Steven smiled back.

The two of them shut off the lights in the mess hall and Gwen locked it up before heading back to the cabin. Steven remembered he still had to get his suitcase from the car and was just pushing it under the bed when David mentioned his guitar.

“Yeah, my dad used to be a musician. He taught me how to play.”

“Really?” Gwen asked. “What’s his stage name?”

Steven sighed. “Mr. Universe.”

“Hm, sorry, never heard of him.” She paused. “Wait, isn’t your last name-”

“He had it changed.” Steven rolled his eyes, another sigh accompanying his answer.

“Oh, sorry.” Gwen grimaced. He shrugged.

“He works as a manager now. A few people knew him back in Delmarva, but it’s really not a bad thing that you never heard of him.”

Gwen laughed. “I get that. Really. It’s kind of the same with my dad.” She glanced at David. “Just please don’t break out into song all the time?”

Steven laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll give you a warning.”

A quiet jingle distracted them and David shut off an alarm on his phone.

“I’ll be off now!” David said. “Gotta make sure everyone is staying in their tents, after all.”

“See ya.” She pulled out a drawer of her bedside table and pulled out some clothes. “Uhh,” she paused. “Right. Listen, normally after David goes out to do his rounds, I get ready for bed, so I gotta kick you out for a bit.”

Steven had wondered how to live in a small cabin like this with two other people. On that note, he didn’t even know where the bathroom was, wither. “Alright. Just one question? Where is the bathroom?”

“There are two outhouses, one by the activities field and one at the amphitheatre. Bathrooms are past the campers' tents, one for the boys and one for the girls and there’s another toilet in the mess hall. Which clogs up all the time, so use that one sparingly. I’d suggest the campers’ one, it’s by far the cleanest.”

“What about showers?”

“There’s one in each of the bathrooms.”

“Okay then.” Steven paused as he was collecting his bathroom things. “Wait, where do I get changed?”

Gwen paused, like she hadn’t thought of that. “I’ll just not look. Don’t worry, I’m not interested in kids.”

Steven left after that and walked down the path to the campers' tents in silence. It was getting darker now, but he could still make out David down one of the other paths when he was passing the mess hall. The camper’s tents were all silent and he hurried past as quietly as possible. 

The bathroom was not the worst he’d ever been in, but also far from a good one. He locked the door behind him with a little hook that was put into a ring on the doorframe. As Gwen had said, it was a toilet and a shower along with a sink, all crammed into a small hut.

He had to flush the toilet several times and ended up washing himself with the help of the sink rather than the shower. At least he had figured out an efficient way to do so when Peridot was occupying his bathroom.

When he returned, Gwen was actually already asleep, so he changed as quickly and silently as he could before putting his things back into his trunk and getting into bed. He checked to make sure his alarm was still on for the next day, then got settled in properly to sleep. 


	2. The first day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> Wow I did not expect this to blow up the way it did. (If you can call this blowing up that is.) And since I was fully prepared to leave this as a oneshot forever, I'm sorry it took me this long to get the next chapter ready. Had to finagle some plot bunnies into their cages and work around some academics that were still in my way, but from here on it should be a little smoother with updates.  
> I like having a schedule for updates, but I honestly don't know how long these chapters will take me, so I'm just going to see how it goes.
> 
> Thank you all so much for being here, I hope you enjoy the second chapter :)
> 
> Tinka~♥

„Goood Morning, Gwen! And Steven!“

His alarm went off just a second after David burst into the counselors’ cabin and woke both Steven and Gwen from their slumber.

“Gwhuh?”Steven made. Gwen responded with a similarly sleep-drunken groan.

“Come on now, up and at them! We got a full day of fun activities planned!”

“Save it for the kids,” Gwen grumbled, but sat up and made a shooing motion with her hand at him. Steven propped himself up on one arm and sat up as well.

“I’ll be back in five!”

After he left Gwen flopped back down. Steven rubbed the sleep from his eyes and went for his trunk. Seeing as Gwen had her back to him, he decided getting dressed now would be a good idea.

“Hey, uh, I’m gonna get dressed real quick, so don’t turn around?”

He got a sleepy mumble in response and understood it to be roughly affirmative. He quickly shed his nightclothes and put on a shirt and jeans.

“Wait…” Gwen suddenly said, then started to sit up again. “You get a shirt.” She huffed and slowly brought herself up to sitting again. “There shou-” she paused to yawn. “There should be some in the mess hall. We’ll get you one in a bit, just-”

The door opened again.

“I just remembered-!”

“David, what the shit, knock!” Gwen hissed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “We need a better system.”

“I’m sorry.” He responded before turning to Steven. “I just remembered that I haven’t given you your Camp Campbell Counselor Uniform yet! I thought one of these might fit.” He put a couple of folded shirts on the bed, then quickly left the cabin again.

“It’s just the shirt?” Steven rifled through the pile of green shirts, looking for his size. Some were long-sleeved, others were T-shirts, and they all had a dark green pine tree printed on the front. There weren’t that many of them, but he did find a t-shirt in his size. It seemed like the shirts were second-hand because the fabric was worn down a little and was surprisingly soft.

He had to switch shirts, and even though he figured seeing a guy topless wasn’t that big a deal, he hated doing this around others. Especially other humans. Turning his back on them at least prevented questions about his gem, but then people would just ask about the faint pink marks on his back. The spots where horns and spines had once pierced through his skin had stayed, even though they had faded from a bright magenta to a color that at least looked more like regular human scar tissue. Still, a guy his age with scars like that tended to make others curious.

However, Gwen had slumped down on her bed again, so he just faced his bed and quickly exchanged shirts. After checking the time – it was just after 6:30 am – he put on his pink jacket over the shirt and put his emergency pill box into his pocket. It was smaller than the bulkier bottle his medication came in, so he preferred to have this one on him when he expected taking his meds somewhere public.

He informed Gwen he was leaving her alone, then left the cabin. Outside, he smiled at the bird song coming from everywhere around him. However, he could not see David anywhere and went off towards the mess hall to look for him. What was it Gwen had said? Breakfast was at seven, or at eight? Either way, it seemed he had half an hour to kill. When he reached the mess hall, he saw the activities field from the corner of his eye and went down that path to check it out. He had not gotten a proper look at it the other day.

There were a multitude of constructs around the clearing and he went over them one by one. There was a bare-bones building that was just barely bigger than him. One of the beams holding up its roof was broken and even though the word ‘hiking’ was painted onto it, Steven could not see anything else hiking-related nearby. The next one was a half-pipe, which looked more like a patchwork of sheet metal and wood. After that was a small elevated wooden stage of some kind. Steven went around and found a big metal box. It looked vaguely human-shaped and made him highly uncomfortable. There were some other things pushed underneath the stage that he didn’t take a closer look at.

Next was another stage, which was made of thick wooden beams that had been pushed together closely. A big piece of star-speckled fabric had been hung up at the back of the small stage. Behind what Steven assumed was a background, he found a large box labeled ‘space camp’. Trying to open it only proved it was locked.

“Oh well,” He shrugged. Maybe he could ask Gwen or David about that later. What caught his attention next was the other spot where fabrics had been hung up. These were dark red and set up in a sort of L-shape to frame a large overturned barrel. Or the top of it. He couldn’t tell if a whole barrel had been buried here or if the top of one had been sawed off and stuck into the ground. But from the looks of it, this was stage number three. And judging from the props behind the curtains, Steven wagered a guess that this was for theatre.

There were a couple of closed paint cans on the ground between that structure and the next, which was a pretty high and medieval-looking tower. The tower-like building actually looked impressive, until he got closer and saw it was plywood held together with duct-tape. He bent down and carefully opened the door and saw there was actually a spiral staircase leading to the top. In the hollow off to the side, there was a box full of plastic weapons.

The only things left were a little nook labeled ‘Science!’ and the outhouse just off to the side. While Steven didn’t know that much of science, he did know that barely anything on the table was proper science equipment. Those were wooden beakers and test tubes!

With a sigh, he stepped back and rubbed his eyes in exasperation. Gwen had said the kids were a handful, but if this was how their interests were treated, he could understand them.

He went back towards the mess hall, intent on finding David, but did stop on the way there to use the outhouse. That was the first time he’d ever seen one of these, but there was a sign on the inside that had instruction on how to use it, at least.

Once he was back at the mess hall, he looked inside and found Gwen drinking a cup of coffee at the same table they had been sitting at the other day. Seeing as he was unsure where exactly he was supposed to be, he went over to her and asked. She just gestured at him to sit down and once he’d done so, started talking.

“I gotta apologize for yesterday.” She sighed and Steven frowned. “I probably said some stuff that made you think it would be better to leave. You’re not technically wrong, but it’s not _that_ terrible here, really. I was kind of on my last leg and the kids just ….really hit me where it hurt before you came, so I might have been a little …” she rotated her hand searching for words.

“Exhausted?” Steven offered. At the same time, Gwen continued. “Bitchy.” She paused and raised a brow at him with a tired smile. “But sure, let’s go with exhausted.” Taking a big sip from her coffee to stress that point. “Okay. Back on topic, most of what I said still applies. I may have exaggerated slightly because I was in a bad mood, but the kids are still a horrible bunch of terrors. They just have their reasons. As far as I gathered.”

The door to the mess hall opened and David came inside with a skip in his step.

“Good to see you two out of bed as well!” he greeted as he took a seat, clipboard in hand. “Are you ready for a great day at Camp Campbell?”

“What’s on the schedule?” Gwen asked.

“Well, seeing as it’s such a beautiful day outside, why don’t we take the kids on a scavenger hunt? We can let them collect materials from the forest to make something out of. It’s two activities in one!”

“Any idea how to make them participate?” Gwen asked dryly.

“Oh, I’m sure they will see the beauty of nature as inspiration enough to-”

“I’m going to stop you. Hell no. You know they need an incentive.”

“Alright then, I’ve been thinking of this prize that is sure to-”

“And _no_ bullshit prizes anymore David!” Gwen interrupted again.

“No no, I was thinking we could order them all pizza!”

Steven furrowed his brows. “What does the winner get then?”

“Pizza!”

Gwen facepalmed. “David, you can’t make them all winners.”

“But it would be discouraging if they didn’t get anything at all after putting so much effort into something.”

“That requires them to actually put effort in.” Gwen argued back. Steven was starting to see the issue, however. David wanted to treat everyone the same, but in doing so, he must be letting the individuality of the campers fall to the wayside. Steven wasn’t sure if Gwen was right about the kids not putting any effort in, but he had an idea he wanted to share.

“Pizza for everyone actually sounds like a good idea,” He started, getting an incredulous and fearful look from Gwen. “But only as a participation prize. And if they do well enough, have prizes for the top three. That way, even if they do not want to win, they participate. And if they do want to win, they will do it well.” He trailed off awkwardly at David’s wet eyes and Gwen's unreadable stare. “I mean, uh, I guess?”

There was a moment of silence, then: “Jesus Christ, you are a fucking godsend.” Gwen grabbed David’s clipboard and scribbled down a few things. “We can make the participation pizza a group thing, so if one of them does not participate, they fuck over everyone else. That way we can be sure we get Max. He might just do it for the pizza, but some peer pressure doesn’t hurt.”

“What should the prizes be?” David thought out loud. “They all have such varied interests….Oh! We can get some candy. We both know most of the campers miss having sugar.”

“Candy, good.” Gwen scribbled on. “Let’s have 1 for third place, 3 for second, and 5 for first place. I can take the car into town while they build stuff so they can have something to pick from.”

Steven smiled, happy that his suggestion had been a good one. “That sounds like a plan.”

David grinned back. “So, after breakfast, we’ll split up into groups and go out into the forest to find materials.”

Gwen raised a finger. “What groups? We need to settle that now, because I want to split up the Terrible Trio for this. Also, as a show of good faith, let’s not give Steven the most difficult ones.”

David nodded. “I can take Max. And Space Kid, I know he’s keen on driving you up the wall.”

“I’m not going to add Nurf to your group then, that’s a disaster waiting to happen.” She scribbled down something more. “So I’ll take Nurf and Dolph. Question.” She pointed her pen at Steven

“Answer?” he joked with a smile. She breathed a slight laugh.

“Cute. But what do you think you’d handle better: a smart little jackass mad scientist or a wild girl with a tendency to get dangerous animals to do what she says?”

“Uhhh.” From what he’d read about Nikki, he at least had a chance of getting along with her. He knew nothing of science, so he had nothing to talk about with Neil. “Nikki, I guess?”

“Okay.” Gwen jotted it down. “Then I’ll take Neil. That leaves the Magic Kids, Preston, Ered, and Dolph.”

“They’re nice,” Steven mentioned. “We talked a little yesterday.”

“Well, we shouldn’t put anyone with the ability to cause mayhem into Max’s vicinity, so Harrison probably has to go with one of us,” She sounded a little pained.

“If it’s okay with you, I can take him?” Steven asked. “That would be Nikki, Harrison, and …?”

“I’ll give you Ered. She’s easier to handle.” Gwen noted it down. “David, you get Nerris and Preston.”

“No problem,” David agreed heartily. “I’m sure this is going to be great!”

Gwen ‘hmm’ed skeptically and tapped her pen on the clipboard. “You put down anime camp and origami camp for the afternoon?”

“I figured they would appreciate some relaxing activities after all that hard work in the morning.”

“And the TV time, no doubt.”

Just then, Steven’s phone played a soft tune, his reminder that it was now seven and time to take his meds. The strange part was that when he shut it off, David’s phone made a notification noise as well.

“I see you have already set an alarm for waking the campers for breakfast!” David beamed.

“Uh.” Steven looked down at his phone. The ‘Take your meds’ reminder stared back. “Sure. I just… Could I get a cup of water?”

Gwen gestured at the door in the back of the hall, seemingly leading to the kitchen. “Make sure the glass is actually clean before you use it!” she yelled after him as he went.

Steven found an assortment of glasses on a drying rack and checked on over before filling it with water and quickly taking his meds. He let the small box disappear into the depths of his pocket again and emptied the glass before coming back outside.

“By the way, was breakfast at seven or eight?” He asked with an apologetic tone.

“7:30, actually. Usually goes until 8, though.” Gwen replied. “We start waking up the kids at 6:45. Well, David does,” She jabbed a thumb at him. “The second wake-up call is at 7, then we do one at 7:20 and 7:25.”

The three left the mess hall and went towards the camper’s tents. A few were already wandering about with wet hair, suggesting they went for a shower before anyone else woke up.

“Come on camperinos! Breakfast is in 30 minutes, so you better start getting ready for a fantastic day!” The tent David had exclaimed this into erupted into groans. Gwen went for another and simply raised her voice a little. “You guys know the drill, get up or face the consequences.”

“Consequences?” Steven asked.

“They get the dregs of breakfast if they are the last ones there. Also, if they are too late, either David or QM will drag them out of bed.”

At her words, there was a squeak from the tent and shortly after, Nerris rushed outside, still in the process of putting on her shoes.

Gwen chuckled and leaned in towards Steven to whisper. “That was only half-true. We wouldn’t actually send the Quartermaster. David would do it though, probably.”

They did get all the campers into the mess hall in time for breakfast and Steven got to witness for the first time how breakfasts at the camp went. While he was happily sipping on his cup of tea – a pot that David had made earlier – more than one of the kids was drinking coffee. Breakfast was breakfast burritos and cereal, of which Steven had chosen the latter. While everyone ate, one of the campers – Steven wagered it was Nurf – had gone up to Max and teased him for being wrong about Steven leaving overnight. As he ate his cereal, Steven could barely overhear something about ‘getting busted by David’ and ‘several times, doesn’t he sleep?!’. Which was a good question, seeing as David had not been back by the time Steven went to bed and had been awake earlier than him or Gwen too.

“Everyone, may I have your attention?” David stood from his seat. “Today, Camp Campbell Campers, we are going on a scavenger hunt!”

There was a chorus of sighs and groans.

“I know you’re all excited to get out there, so let me quickly tell you what today’s scavenger hunt is all about.” He went on. “You will be looking for natural materials from the forest to create something unique and beautiful! There will be a contest and the winners get prizes.”

“We don’t want your bullshit prizes, camp man!” Max hollered and used his spoon to catapult some cereal onto David.

“Also, if everyone _does_ participate, you all get pizza for dinner!” David added, still smiling as he wiped off the food from his shirt. This did get the kids to perk up and pay attention.

Gwen intervened at this point. “And if _one of you_ does not participate, no one gets pizza.”

It was very telling how all the campers turned to where Max was sitting. He scoffed, but didn’t say anything.

“We will be splitting into three teams.” David listed off the names from Gwen’s list. “Neil, Nurf, and Dolph go with Gwen. Max, Space Kid, Preston, and Nerris, you are coming with yours truly-” There was a muffled swear from Max. “And Harrison, Nikki, and Ered go with Steven.”

“Yes! I get the fresh meat!” Nikki vaulted over the table and came to a stop in front of Steven.

Seeing as almost everyone was done eating, it didn’t take long before they were all putting away the dishes and getting outside. Everyone was sorted into their respective groups and Gwen pulled Steven aside to tell him he should call her if anything was wrong. Then, it was off into the woods.

He went over the kids in his group in his head. Harrison, magic camp, calls himself illusionist. They talked the other day and in his opinion, got on fairly well. Next was Nikki, adventure camp, part of the group of troublemakers. So far she seemed alright, even if he had to keep an extra eye on her to keep her from wandering off. That had already happened twice in what couldn’t have been more than ten minutes. Ered, extreme sports camp, was the oldest camper at Camp Campbell and so far seemed okay, if a bit uninterested in what they were doing.

Alright then, time to get them participating in the activity. There had been some tips on how to do so in the manual.

“So, what do you guys want to make?” he asked. In response, he got a few uncertain hums and shrugs.

“Ooohh, can I put wasps into mine?” Nikki gasped. “I wanna build a wasp bomb!”

Steven laughed nervously. “That sounds a little dangerous. Maybe don’t make bombs? Or weapons?”

“Aw man,” she sullenly kicked a rock.

“I was just gonna, like- get some cool-looking rock or something. It’s not like we gotta do much with it,” Ered added.

Steven furrowed his brow. “But wouldn’t it be better to actually make something you’ll use?”

“Like what?” Harrison asked. Steven thought about it for a moment. He thought of the necklaces he’d made with Sadie on Mask Island, then took a look at the children and discarded the idea. Flower crowns probably weren’t their style either and he didn’t want to encourage them to make weapons. Maybe he could-

He reached into his pocket to get his phone. “Don’t tell on me,” he asked the kids. “I have to admit that I can’t think of much either, so I’m going to look for some inspiration, okay?”

“Sure,” Ered leaned against a tree and Nikki slowly inched closer to her. Harrison turned over a large rock with his foot.

A quick look through some suggestions had Steven call Nikki over. “What do you think of an insect hotel?” he showed her a picture.

“That’s just a bunch of sticks in a box,” she noted.

“Exactly!” Steven grinned. “Insects and bugs love to crawl into small spaces like that and lay their eggs there. I don’t know if there is bamboo growing around here, but if not we can get some branches and drill holes in them, see?”

Nikki’s eyes were the size of plates. “I love it,” She whispered. Steven laughed.

“I also have an idea for you two,” He stood up as Nikki began to pick up random sticks. “Ered, there is this method of dying clothes with bleach. If we can get something with an interesting shape, you can get the silhouette to stick,” he showed her a few pictures that looked like black lightning bolts on white fabric. It was really just a few branches from trees, but he figured it would look cool enough to get her interest.

“Sure. I got an old towel I could try that on,” the teen shrugged.

“What about me?” Harrison asked.

“There are some nice looking wands in here that were made from sticks-” Steven started but Harrison scoffed.

“I’m not _Nerris_ , please,” he rolled his eyes. “I have my wand, it doesn’t need to be replaced.”

Steven sighed. “Oh, okay then. Umm,” He scrolled through some more pictures, but had to admit defeat. “I guess you wouldn’t be interested in making a dreamcatcher?”

“That’s okay,” Harrison said. “I can just make some props. Since I can’t find a way to bring back the ones I made disappear. Might be good to have something useless to practice on.”

“Can’t you just do the trick in reverse?” Steven asked. He wasn’t sure how the magic in those TV shows worked, but Connie had shown him a trick with a false thumb and a handkerchief once.

“If only!” Harrison huffed.

Overall, it went surprisingly well. They gathered a variety of twigs and branches for Nikki’s bug hotel and Harrison found a bunch of smooth stones by the lake he was going to paint. It was a tad more difficult finding something that was cool enough for Ered, however. There had been thoughts of using leaves to make flames or a branch for something like what they’d seen in pictures. Feathers were out almost instantly upon suggestion too and from there it was getting harder and harder to find something for her. In the end, though, she did settle on a branch.

They were also the first group back at the mess hall, which worried Steven a little. He hoped it didn’t show too much. Instead he talked with the kids about how to tackle the actual creation of whatever they were trying to make. Harrison said he was just going to borrow some paint from Dolph and paint some patterns on the rocks. Nikki asked where they could get a box from and Steven told her they’d figure something out. He had made a mental list of things he needed to ask from Gwen or David, seeing as the girls’ projects needed some outside tools. Something to drill holes into the branches for the insect hotel, bleach, and a spray bottle for the dying. Also, vinegar and water to dunk the fabric in, apparently, and some gloves because they’d be working with chemicals. The box for Nikki was on the list now as well.

There was chattering coming from one of the paths and Steven was relieved to see Gwen approaching.

“Back already?” Gwen raised a brow at him once she was near enough.

“I’m going to catch bugs!” Nikki exclaimed suddenly, shoving her collection of sticks into Neil’s face with a grin. “What did you get?”

“Samples,” He shrugged. “At least some of the plants around here are useful.”

While the kids showed each other what they had gathered, Gwen asked him in a slightly hushed tone what had happened.

“What do you mean?” Steven asked. “I mean, we did have a bit of trouble coming up with ideas. By the way, am I allowed to use my phone?”

Gwen huffed. “Do whatever you want, just make sure to keep an eye on it when Max is around. Usually, he goes for David’s phone, but I caught him trying to take mine once too.”

“Hm,” Steven made in reply. He might have to password protect some photos. There wasn’t much he could do about his contacts though, so he’d just have to keep his phone with him at all times.

The kids’ conversation died down a little when David’s group came around the mess hall. It seemed they had been right about participation, seeing as everyone at least had something with them to work with. The counselors got everyone into the mess hall and Steven was shown to a back room by David.

“And this is were we keep our arts and crafts meterials,” he gestured at a small shelf with construction paper, pencils, glue, scissors and other similar things. Next to it were also some woodworking tools, which included a small saw and a manual drill, thankfully. That way they could drill holes into the thicker branches Nikki had gotten for her project.

“I have a question, do we have some empty cans?” he figured using a wooden box for the insect hotel might be a little difficult, but there had also been little tin can ones. “Also, I don’t know if this is doable, but what Ered wants to do needs a few extra things as well. Sorry if that’s too much trouble-”

“Nonsense! This is great, we have everyone working together to make something nice! Of course, we can make it happen. What do you need?”

“A spray bottle, bleach, and vinegar. She wants to tie-dye something with that. Also gloves, of course.”

“No problem-o!” David was already rummaging in a cabinet and pulled out the first two items and the gloves, before heading to the other side of the room and getting some tin cans. “I’ll have to get the vinegar from our food storage, but you can start bringing the arts and crafts materials outside.”

Everything was brought out into the mess hall where most of the kids were starting to arrange the things they got on the table. Once David was back with the vinegar, Gwen pulled the two male counselors aside.

“I’m going to head into town to get- ”she paused, looking over to one table where Steven could see Max glaring over at them. Gwen continued in a lowered tone. “- the prizes. Don’t let the kids revolt and make sure no one cuts anything important off. We can’t afford to pay anyone’s hospital bills.” It was said in a way that sounded both serious and like a joke. “Also, might help to remind Max he needs to do something with his rock, or it’s not participation.”

“I’ll get on that right away!” David went off.

“You keep an eye on them. That includes David.” Gwen added to Steven, almost like an afterthought.

“Okay,” Steven agreed and watched Gwen go.

Steven had wondered if Gwen would make it back in time, seeing as crafting a few things would surely not take as much time as the trip into town and back. However, he stood corrected. Most of the kids were pretty self-sufficient in making what they had set out to do, but he noticed that David’s input occasionally threw a wrench into things going smoothly. Neil had spent most of the time grinding up herbs or putting them in bundles to dry, only for David to take some of the not-yet used ones and make a flower crown out of them. The kid had snatched it off his curly hair after David crowned him with it and had to go through the process of taking it apart and re-sorting the plants. Similar things happened here and there, and though Steven tried to acknowledge that David meant well, he was getting a tad irritated at the redhead. Couldn’t he see that they were doing fine without his input?

Well, except Nikki maybe. Steven had to supervise her using the hand drill with his full attention after she attempted to drill through a piece of wood she was holding in her hand. If she had gone through, that drill would have ended up in her palm!

But after that had been done with, it seemed that either Gwen was an incredibly fast driver or these projects really had taken a lot longer than he’d thought. Gwen had come into the mess hall with a grocery bag and beelined into the back rooms, where she deposited the bag and then stood guard over the door.

“What great timing Gwen!” David greeted her. “The campers just got done with all their projects. Aren’t these great?” he gestured at the mess hall and a few kids awkwardly held up their creations.

“So everyone made something?” As Gwen turned to her co-counselors, the campers started up a conversation and soft murmurs filled the mess hall.

“Yep, everyone worked hard to create something new!” David affirmed as Steven coughed into his hand to hide a laugh. While most of the kids had actually tried to make something, a few had only barely done anything to their materials. Mainly Space Kid and Max. The latter had brought back a large rock and after continuous pestering from David, he’s grabbed a sharpie and written ‘Death to David’ on it. Space Kid had collected rocks as well but only piled them on top of each other. Seeing as he at least did that in a somewhat creative fashion, Steven had suggested gluing the stones down like that so it would hold for longer. It wasn’t useful, perhaps, but it was art.

“How do we choose the winners?” Steven asked the other two.

“Oh, I just can’t decide,” David sighed. “They all worked so hard.”

“M-hm,” Gwen made a dubious noise. “You clearly aren’t objective enough to judge this. What did they actually make?”

“Well, most of them did make something creative. Some of the things are useful, but they probably won’t last all that long.”

“So, we can probably judge them on those criteria, right? Creativity, practicality, and craftsmanship.” Gwen reiterated.

“That sounds good,” Steven nodded. David gave his affirmation as well and they began to take a closer look at what everyone had made.

There were some paintbrushes Dolph made out of his sticks and feathers that looked pretty good, but would likely fall apart after a couple of uses. Nerris had brought back a thick branch, covered in dead ivy vines and large knots, over which she had sprinkled paint and glitter. Or in her words, potions and spells. In Steven’s opinion, it looked magical enough. Preston made flower crowns, which David absolutely adored, while Nurf had wrapped and glued the brambly vines he got around the thick branch, making something distinctly like a weapon.

After they had cataloged everyone’s projects, the counselors started off by ‘disqualifying’ campers from winning. Max was out first, seeing as he had nothing in either judging category – even though David actually tried to vote for practicality.

“A rock that heavy would certainly be practical for the purpose he says it is intended for?”

So, both Max and Nurf ended up at the bottom of the list for making something intended for violence. Space kid and Neil – Steven reminded himself that they were both named ‘Neil’ – were out because the younger kid had only creativity on his side and the other only practicality.

This left Nerris, Harrison, Preston, Dolph, Ered, and Nikki as candidates for winning.

“While I appreciate Harrison making attempts to lessen the damage he does, painted rocks aren’t exactly all that creative. Especially seeing as he could just use anything as props,” Gwen said.

“They’re just magic tricks, right?” Steven laughed, a little bothered by her considering the camper's hobby to be something damaging. “It’s not like he’ll actually make them disappear. He’s just trying to learn the tricks,” he paused at the looks on their faces. “Right?”

“Well….” David made a so-so gesture.

“According to his parents, he _supposedly_ made his brother disappear,” Gwen said in a tone that said she wasn’t quite sure if she should believe that. “But they seemed rather… conservative? Probably think the ‘coin behind your ear’ trick is dark witchcraft too,” She shrugged.

“Oh,” Steven made. It was sad that his parents weren’t supportive of his interests.

“Anyways, I say we strike Dolph from the list too.”

“Huh? I thought his brushes are pretty good.”

Gwen nodded. “They are, but Dolph doesn’t care for candy as much as the other campers. If he wins, it would just go to the first one to ask him for it, which would probably be the two who deserve it the least.”

“Gwen, you can’t just single out a camper like that!” David exclaimed in a hushed tone.

“Oh come off it, we both know Max is your favorite, I get to have _my_ non-favorites.”

David stammered something but didn’t really say anything against that.

“So we got Nikki, Ered, and Preston,” she summarized. “Who do we give first place to?”

“Preston, of course,” David said, clearly still smitten with the flower crowns.

“Definitely not, he’ll get mobbed and possibly beat up,” Gwen shook her head. “Nikki can hold her own and Ered is popular enough that no one will care if she gets first place, so Preston gets third place.”

“What about Nerris?” Steven interjected. She seemed to have just disappeared from the list. “She did a great job too.”

“She slathered a stick in paint and glitter,” Gwen deadpanned.

“Well, I agree with Steven, it’s a fantastic… wand thing. Wizard staff?”

“It’s probably going to see more use than the flower crowns,” Steven added. “Preston didn’t seem thrilled to be working with something that had bugs living in it.”

“We could make it Nerris, Nikki, Ered?” Gwen offered. “Ered being first, Nerris third place.”

This line-up did seem to be for the best and eventually found agreement from all three of them. Additionally, they came up with something else to make sure third place didn’t get the dregs of the candy. Gwen had bought two chocolate bars, two small bags of chips, and another two with gummy worms, as well as two small bags of hard candies. They would let third-place pick one of them first, then second place got their three picks and first place got what was left. Also, no one was allowed to take two of a kind.

“Attention, Camp Campbell Campers!” David called once everything was settled and Gwen went to get the bag from the kitchen. “The jury has made its decision!” This only got the attention of about half the campers, but David went on regardless. “We have discussed all the great things you created today and have come to a conclusion on who the winners are!”

A few more heads now looked their way. Gwen had come back out of the backroom and the bag now held everyone’s attention. She held it up and shook it once. “Third place gets to pick something from the bag first, second place gets three things, and first gets all that’s left. No picking two of the same thing.”

“But what IS it?” Preston asked, the same question easily readable in the other camper's faces.

“It’s a surprise!” David said, which earned him unimpressed looks from most in the room.

“Ask Nerris, she gets to go first,” Gwen said.

“Me?” Nerris pointed at herself.

“You!” Steven smiled. “Seeing as you got third place, you get to pick first.”

She set down her staff and came over, gasping when she looked inside the bag. “Really?!” she exclaimed, bouncing in place.

“Remember, just one thing,” Gwen reminded her as she dug in the bag. When Nerris pulled out one of the chocolate bars, everyone in the mess hall gasped.

“What the fuck?!” Neil yelled.

“You assholes never give actual prizes!” Max sounded furious and seemed about ready to use his ‘Death to David’ rock.

“Now, now, no need to be upset,” David placated. “We still have the second and first place!”

This time, everyone was on the edge of their seat. “Who?! Who is it?!” Nikki shouted with vigor.

Steven laughed. “Funny you should ask that.”

“That’s right,” David elaborated. “Second place goes to Nikki for her insect hotel!” The girl had moved faster than David could finish and was already picking out her three things, one again reminded by Gwen to only take one of a kind. She ended up with the gummy worms, hard candies, and the other chocolate bar.

“And the rest goes to Ered,” Gwen waved her over, ignoring the disappointed noises from all over the mess hall.

“Who did an incredible job with her tie-dye project!” David added. The result did look rather nice. The black fabric of her towel had faded to a sort of pale reddish hue from the bleach, and the black silhouette of the branch she had sprayed it overlooked a lot like a lightning bolt or a crack in the earth or something.

Much like Gwen had anticipated, after David reminded those who hadn’t won that there would still be pizza for dinner, nobody really begrudged the three winners. Ered had taken her two bag of chips and the remaining bags of gummy worms and hard candies, then everyone was enlisted to help clean up. Lunchtime was just around the corner and Steven could already smell the food. Which was surprising, seeing as he had not realized the Quartermaster had entered the kitchen.

“What the fuck are you?” he was in the middle of putting away the hand drill and saw from Nikki’s project when he was approached by Max.

He smiled nervously. “What do you mean?”

“There is no way in hell David or Gwen came up with this themselves. So what’s your deal, huh?”

Steven shrugged. “Yeah, I guess the prizes were kind of my idea. Sorry, you didn’t win.”

“That’s not what I fucking meant! You can’t just waltz in here and change the natural order of things. That shit isn’t gonna fly.”

“Hey, hey, careful with the four-letter words!” Steven admonished softly.

“Oh god no, you’re like David.” Max glared at him before approaching footsteps got his attention. “You’ll regret this,” He threatened and stalked out of the room. It looked kind of adorable if Steven was honest. But he was sure he wouldn’t have to worry. Certainly, nothing the kid could do would be all that hard to deal with.

After lunch – which was fish sticks and mashed potatoes – Gwen pulled out an old TV and some dusty tapes and CDs. The promise of TV got most of the campers to settle down and partake in anime camp, even though only a few were truly interested. Dolph seemed to have a vague interest in the art style, Preston was interested in the screenwriting, and Nerris ‘ooh’ed at a lot of the fight scenes. Maybe it was the fact that Ered split her hard candies between the campers who didn’t win anything that kept them all quiet, but the evening went by surprisingly well.

The three counselors mostly did their own thing as the kids watched TV, keeping an eye on them now and then. At first, Steven had been interested in the shows as well, but maybe he was a little too old to watch them. There had been three different shows, one about a kid going on a big journey to… Steven actually didn’t know? Probably to become a great fighter, but he got a little hung up on the fact that the boy was nearly killed by a swarm of birds in the first episode or so. The next show was a detective one, with honestly kind of gruesome murders. There wasn’t really an excessive amount of blood, but he did have to ask the other two counselors if that one was really for kids. Apparently, it was. The last one was the one where Steven finally lost all interest in the shows and ended up just watching the kids from time to time. The whole ‘magical destiny’ thing didn’t really hold his interest like it used to, but at least the kids seemed to like it for the most part.

After a few hours, David tried to get them to discuss what they had watched, but once again Steven saw that his attempts went unappreciated. While David kept trying to get the campers to see the displays of friendship or honesty and other values, the kids stuck with what they had found interesting and were talking more about cool fight scenes, mysteries and the cruelty of human nature and the corruption of the system.

Which, okay, Steven could see why David tried so hard.

There was only an hour left before dinner, so David asked Gwen and Steven to supervise for a bit outside.

“That way, the kiddo’s can stretch their legs a little before origami camp!” he explained.

It shouldn’t have been surprising that some of the kids were now trying to emulate the action scenes from the shows they’d seen. When Steven saw flames out of the corner of his eye, he startled and turned that direction, sure he would find something on fire, but only saw Harrison and Nerris bickering. Maybe he had seen that wrong? He knew for sure he had gotten enough sleep tonight.

When he let his gaze drift over the other campers, he noticed something odd. One, two, three-… seven. There were seven kids.

“Uh, Gwen?” he nudged her arm and she looked up from her magazine. “We’re supposed to have ten campers, right?”

She shut the magazine with a groan. “Let me guess,” she surveyed the area and nodded. “Yup. The usual. Okay,” Gwen pointed at him. “You stay here and supervise, I go find Max and the other two.”

“Do you know where they went?”

“There are a couple of spots I know to check and if they aren’t there, they’ll probably be back later. I wouldn’t worry until dinnertime.”

“What? Why?” Steven frowned. It sounded like a big deal if the campers just went missing for that long.

“They’ve never stayed away from camp for long. Once they realize they won’t make it anywhere by themselves, they’ll come back. If they don’t, then something happened and we can send David to gather them. That is usually the Woodscout’s fault. They’re the camp across the lake.” She added as an explanation.

“But isn’t it dangerous for them to be out in the woods?”

Gwen shrugged. “They’re crafty little shits and at least there’s three of them. So if something serious did actually happen, one of them would come tell us,” she paused before correcting herself. “Something _really_ serious.”

“Oh,” Steven made, even though he still had a lot of questions, he figured that could wait until she was back. “Good luck, then?”

“Yeah, see ya in an hour or so.” Gwen waved and went off towards the lake.

“Where is Gwen going?” a muffled voice asked. Space Kid had snuck up on them, as it seemed, but he wasn’t the only one interested in Gwen's departure. The remaining seven kids were all looking at him and it was making him sort of uncomfortable.

“She, uh, just went to check on something?” While the disappearance of campers did not seem to be a big deal to Gwen, he wasn’t sure if the other campers knew of this.

“Max, Nikki und Neil ran off again, right?” Dolph asked.

Then again, it was kind of obvious to have three of ten kids missing.

“Yeah, I guess. Does it happen that often?”

“If they don’t find some adventure to distract them, daily,” Nurf replied.

“Oh. So… they’ll be fine?”

“Not to worry!” Nerris said. “They usually don’t fail their luck check twice a week and we all already got traumatized by Space Kid’s campfire story, so they’ll probably be fine.”

“Wha-?”

“We’re all set up!” David shouted from the mess hall. “Everyone come in and let’s do some origami!”

Grumbling, the small herd of children wandered into the mess hall, leaving Steven behind. He may not have understood all that Nerris had said about luck checks, but he wasn’t sure what to think about 10-year-olds causally mentioning they got traumatized. Either they didn’t actually know what it meant, in which case he might have to talk to them about that, or they did and then he would also have to have a talk with them. And Gwen and David.

Steven finally followed the kids into the mess hall with a frown still on his face.

“Hey buddy!” David came over to him. “I couldn’t help but notice that we seem to be missing some people.”

Steven nodded. “Yeah… Gwen went to look for them? Uh, Max, Nikki-”

“-and Neil, of course,” David ‘tsk’ed. “I’m sure they’re just going around being rapscallions.”

“I heard that happens a lot?”

“Well, maybe,” David stammered a little. “But they’re just kids, you know how they get. These three just tend to get especially into their little games and tend to wander off a little from camp now and then.”

“Aren’t you worried about them?” Steven had been almost certain David would be the kind of person to lose his head if one of the campers went missing.

“I- well, you see- Everyone always comes out fine, there is rarely much to worry about…” but now David did look a tad concerned. “Max is very smart for his age, I’m sure he’ll be able to tell at what point he should be coming back to camp. And if not, you already said Gwen is on the job,” David paused for a second before something caught his eye. “Excuse me.”

Steven hummed in an unsatisfied way. David had gone over to Space Kid, who had a bunch of crumpled-up paper littered around him and was apparently just trying to shape the paper by crushing it into the approximate shape.

But it seemed David was right, since Gwen came back shortly after with the runaways in tow. When Steven asked where they were, she grimaced and handed him his keys. Which he had put into his bag the other day.

“Uh?”

“They got into the counselors' cabin and were looking through your car when I got to them,” she said in an apologetic tone. “I’m going to guess they were trying to spy on you. Did you have anything valuable in there?”

As she was speaking, Steven was already going through a list. When he had moved out, he obviously hadn’t taken all of his possessions on the road with him. He had actually made a point to limit the amount of gem-related things he carried, seeing as he wanted to take a break from that part of him and focus more on his human side. The few exceptions to this were his phone and tablet – both password protects and therefore hopefully safe from the kids – but also the communicator he let himself get talked into. It had proven to be useful to call his dad or the gems when reception for his phone was bad, but he hadn’t had the need to actually use it for anything else. For the most part, it was just buried in one of the suitcases that he used the least. He wasn’t actually sure if it was in the white or the blue one. They both had number locks, so it was one of either for sure.

“I don’t think they could have found anything,” he mumbled. The three children in question were now also doing origami like the others. Mostly, that is. David had gravitated over to them and was now trying really hard to get them into folding paper, which only seemed to work on Nikki.

“By the way, should I be worried that the kids are casually talking about getting traumatized?”

Gwen huffed. “Depends. If Max says it, more often than not it’s a ruse to get you do to something or to blackmail us, counselors. But in all seriousness, with how easily accessible all these horror movies and what-not are with the internet, kids these days seem to be getting traumatized for breakfast. I mean, we have kids here that watch slasher movies and don’t bat an eye,” she paused in her rant. “Who said they were traumatized?”

Steven was still catching up on what she had said. He hated that he had to compare, but watching an adult movie too early probably wasn’t as bad as almost getting killed every other week. Then again, he didn’t think he ever saw anything age-inappropriate growing up. So most likely, the kids weren’t actually traumatized and probably didn’t know what the word meant? Or they were but didn’t feel like addressing the issue.

“Nerris said something about a ghost story last week?” he finally answered Gwen’s question.

She shuddered. “Ugh. Yeah. Never would have thought Space Kid had that sort of horror story up his sleeve. But I don’t think it actually traumatized anyone. Definitely scared us all shitless, but nothing worse than that.”

Steven sighed in relief and nodded. A scary story was not that bad, right? He was a little surprised it had come from one of the youngest kids there, however. His gaze drifted over to where Space Kid was still happily crumpling up his paper. It didn’t seem to him like the kid would be good at scary stories if he was honest.

“Come on, while the kids are busy we can try and get David into some planning.”

They managed to pull David aside and sit down for some brainstorming. According to the senior counselors, they usually spent some time on Saturday planning activities for the next week, but they only roughly appointed various ideas to days, excepting the upcoming horse-back riding camp on Friday, for which they had to call a nearby ranch and make arrangements accordingly.

“It seems like the weather tomorrow is going to be as nice as the forecast promised, so we can stick with our fun day out in the sun!” David jotted down a check mark on something on his clipboard. Steven was thinking he might have to get one of his own at some point. “Which means we’re going to go down to the lake at some point, probably after lunch. We haven’t really had many ideas for what else to do, except for the water fight. I’ve been thinking, perhaps we could make… ice cream,” he lowered his voice for the last two words, like the mere mentioning of sweets would cause mayhem.

“No way,” Gwen vetoed. “Have you seen the state of the machine Campbell bought? That thing is food poisoning waiting to happen.”

“What about just freezing juice? Or yogurt?” Steven suggested. “Do we have containers to do that in?”

“Not really,” Gwen replied. “They would have to be plastic and we mostly got tin cans and empty pudding packs.”

“Those should work, though, right?” Steven asked.

“If they weren’t in the trash, sure.”

Steven shrugged. “They can’t all be winners.”

“Aww, don’t worry buddy! I’m sure we’ll think of something good.”

“I mean, we are already going into the lake to cool off, I’m sure the kids at least won’t try to burn the camp down, seeing as it’s gonna be sweltering anyway,” Gwen noted.

“What about weights camp?” David suggested.

“Didn’t I _just_ say it was going to be sweltering?”

“Exactly! After a good workout, I’m sure everyone will be even happier about a nice swim in the lake.”

Gwen grumbled. “Wouldn’t be so sure about that,” but then she sighed and caved. “Whatever, sure. So the plan is weights in the morning and swimming in the afternoon? Any other camps we can jam in there?”

“Why do you do that anyway?” Steven couldn’t help but ask.

“Because we’re contractual…ly…” Gwen trailed off. “Holy fuck, wait a second. David, the Campwells put you in charge of the camp, right?”

“Well, technically they put Johnman Radcamp in charge, who does not exist and therefore the Millers gave the campgrounds back to Camp Corp who never followed up on the e-mail I sent them.”

Gwen’s head hit the table. “I could strangle you right now,” she growled.

Steven frowned. “What is it?”

Gwen sighed and sat back upright. “Alright. See, here’s the thing. Technically, we are contractually obligated to provide the activities that Camp Campbell offers. Which is literally anything you can imagine, as you’ve seen by the application papers of these guys,” She made a gesture at the kids around the mess hall. “Which means, to be safe, Campbell has us run every single camp on our list. Honestly, I would have thought we’d run out of time before getting it all done, but since we often squash three or more camps into one day, we’ve managed to make it work, I guess. We could probably take it easy now, we only have like two weeks left anyway.”

“We could just leave it at these two things,” David nodded and flipped through a few pages on the clipboard. “I didn’t even notice how quickly we went through all the camps this year. Though I suppose we did step up the number of camps we went through daily,” At Stevens questioning look her elaborated in a hushed tone. “It tires the kids out and keeps them from getting too over-excited.”

Steven chuckled, then he remembered he still had to as about Connie. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry, I completely forgot to ask something. You said we’d make tomorrow evening free time, could it be possible for me to take a short break then to meet up with my girlfriend?” he could feel warmth on his cheeks.

“Aww, of course, buddy. Is she coming to Camp Campbell or are you meeting in town?” David asked.

“We haven’t discussed that yet, I said I would call her this evening,” he eyed the window where the sun was already tinting the skies in hues of orange. Gwen followed his gaze.

“Fine by me as well. Just don’t _do_ anything on campgrounds,” she warned. He waved her off with a smile.

“Don’t worry, she is just checking in to see how I’m doing. I’d take her into town if we wanted to go out to eat or anything.”

“That is very sweet of her!” David smiled back while Gwen looked a little lost. “Oh, but if you do end up going into town, do check your trunk for stowaways before you leave.”

“Does that happen a lot too?” Steven chuckled nervously.

“Ah, just once or twice.”

“Alright, that sounds good!” Connie replied after Steven had relayed the situation. The counselors had given him a rough time estimate from where he could be free and then Gwen and Steven had left the mess hall. Gwen took the car to get the promised pizzas, while he had gone around a corner to make his call. The reception wasn’t good enough for a video call, but still alright for a regular call.

“Just tell Lion to leave after you portal to the coordinates,” he reminded her. The location he had sent was just a short walk outside of the campgrounds since she had to take the magical feline’s portals to follow Steven around on his road trip. It had come a bit of a running joke between them to leave Lion outside the eye of the public after Steven had accidentally sent her a location that wasn’t really private. There may be some videos still in circulation, thankfully played down to ‘really impressive CGI’ and ‘conspiracy theory territory’.

Connie laughed, clearly remembering the same debacle. “Sure thing, Steven! See you tomorrow!”

For a moment after he had hung up, he stared into the distance where the sun was setting over the lake. It looked really beautiful.

“So why exactly are you _still_ here?”

Steven jumped. “Oh my Stars!” he bent over and wheezed. “Why do you keep sneaking up people like that? How are you this quiet?”

Max shrugged. “You didn’t answer my question. And I’m losing betting money.”

Right, he had bet with the other kids that he’d be gone by now, right?

“I mean, I don’t really have a reason to leave?” Steven thought aloud. “I’m actually just getting more and more reasons to stay.”

“You know, if you needed a place to hide, you couldn’t have picked a worse place. Did you know that Ered’s parents are FBI? I get the local police department up here once a week at least, and Campbell himself is a shady fuck who is under strict supervision.”

Steven laughed. “Gwen told me you went through my things. But you’re wrong, I’m not running. I’m… exploring, I guess.”

“Yeah, right,” the kid scoffed. “As if you’re not smuggling something. What do you need that locked box for then?”

So they had found it. Steven grimaced.

“Hah! I knew it!”

“Nah, it’s nothing illegal.” Probably. “It’s just… important,” he could basically feel the weight of Max’s glare. “Why did you feel the need to do that anyway? I’m not hurting anything by being here, right?”

“Fuck, you’re _good_ ,” there was venom in his voice. Steven tilted his head and met the bright turquoise eyes of the boy.

“What do you mean?”

The kid grumbled something under his breath and then pointed his fingers at his eyes in an ‘I’m watching you’ kinda way. “You may have gotten to David and Gwen, but I’ll make sure you’ll be out of here before the week is over.”

Steven laughed nervously and joked. “Well, Wednesday is already over.”

“That’s what you think,” was the last thing Max spat at him before going back inside.

Perhaps he should take extra care to lock or hide his things tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hesitate to leave a comment, I always like to hear second opinions!

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment! They make my fingers go vrrrrmm! :D


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